


The Shore

by spiritfannumber1



Category: Shingeki no Kyojin | Attack on Titan
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, F/F, F/M, M/M, Road Trips, i'll tag more pairings as they appear
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-01-25
Updated: 2018-02-14
Packaged: 2018-03-09 00:55:42
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 5
Words: 20,131
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3230114
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/spiritfannumber1/pseuds/spiritfannumber1
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>College senior Eren Yeager is nearing graduation, and begins to worry that after graduation he and his childhood friends will slowly drift apart. In an effort to prevent this, he suggests a road trip from East Coast to West.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> So I first posted this fic a year ago, and I completely dropped the ball on updates.  
> I decided to reupload, and I'm kind of hoping that that will encourage me to continue to update regularly again. Whoops. Sorry, I suck.

  

            “You’re serious.”

 

            ”Well, yeah.”

 

            “Eren, no.” Mikasa Ackerman looked at him with incredulity.

 

            “But think about it!” Eren Yeager spread his arms and his eyes sparkled with enthusiasm, “We’re not going to have enough free time to do this ever again, we’ll be so busy and our schedules will conflict… And it’s not like it’s last minute, for once I’m actually planning this ahead of time, so we can save up money and properly plan it. Armin’s really good at figuring out the logistics, we’d be able to plan a budget-“

           

            A waitress setting down their Thursday discounted Coke floats momentarily distracted Eren as the carbonated beverage fizzed against vanilla ice cream, giving Mikasa a chance to reach for the straw in hers and whip the bottom end at Eren, sending a glob of ice cream at his cheek. “Hey!” He gingerly swiped it away with his thumb before licking it off.

           

            She altered her tone, having noted the legitimate enthusiasm in his green eyes. “I’m not entirely shooting you down, Eren. But maybe you could think of something more plausible.”

 

            “It’s-“

 

            “Not entirely reasonable. It’s a long trip from here, and I thought you hated long car rides.”

           

            Eren flushed, he’d forgotten about that vital aspect. “But with the three of us it’d be really fun.”

 

            After a long sip of her $2.50 Coke float Mikasa’s mood lightened. “It’s just a little ambitious, Eren, but it might be fun if it’s possible to do. We can talk to Armin after class.”

 

            Grinning, Eren spooned himself a mouthful of ice cream, confident that Armin would be even more eager than he.

 

 

* * *

 

 

            Eren’s periwinkle paint tipped brush paused above his canvas, his eyes glazed over as his mind wandered. Summer was a long way off. The Massachusetts air was frigid, campus grounds carpeted with snow. It was February 13th, only several weeks into the second semester, but Eren was already dreaming of lemonade stand-worthy weather. The night before he had fallen asleep to warm dreams while working on a series of still life paintings for his portfolio. He had been horrendously creative by painting a colorful bowl of fruit (the real life reference had been brought to him by Mikasa, who chastised him for not eating properly) and the monotony of the truly original painting had put him to sleep, despite the mug of lightly caffeinated Earl Grey tea steaming beside him.

 

            Maybe it had been the deep blue of the abandoned mug, but Eren dreamed of the ocean. The warm wind tangling his brown hair, unkempt from the ocean’s salt, the hiss of bubbling foam, and the sound of waves crashing upon the white shore all felt real to him, and he awoke with a start, wiping sweat that had started to form along his brow. (Along with the yellow paint that had dried in cracks upon his left cheek.)

 

            He wanted to go. Eren lived in Massachusetts, the ocean wasn’t far off. But his dream had been warm, and February Massachusetts couldn’t be farther from warm. He pulled out his cracked iPhone, thumbing at the lock screen. He, Mikasa, and Armin had been mulling over what to do during spring break, and Eren considered the possibility of heading to the beach then, since it would be warmer. But not that much.

_Panama City?_ Jean had mentioned that he’d gone there one spring break, and at first Eren couldn’t understand why Jean would bother traveling to the opposite end of the US for this particular Florida beach, but Jean smugly insisted that the scene was intense. Flights weren’t cheap, but this was their last undergraduate year together, and a bit of frivolity was to be expected.

 

            A quick glance at Panama City through Google Images confirmed Jean’s smug statement. _Ah, scene, not scenery._ Images mainly consisted of masses of tanned student bodies clutching beer bottles dusted with white sand. _Fucking Jean._

Eren’s mind wandered to visiting the West Coast. _California is famous for beaches. It’s even farther away than Florida, but the flight cost won’t be that much higher because Florida flights are already expensive anyway, we could probably swing it if we stayed somewhere cheap. Or we could dri-_ It was then when he was struck by the idea of a road trip. Coast to coast. Post-graduation. He, Armin, and Mikasa’s last stand before being tossed into the confused whirlwind of the twenty-somethings. No obligations. Them, the car, and the goal of traveling from the Atlantic to the Pacific. _Hell yes._

 

            The buzz of his phone against his leg snapped Eren from his memories of the previous night of planning, reminding him that he was still in class. Hurriedly returning to dotting the smooth crest of a wave, he furrowed his brow in concentration. He hadn’t meant to draw a nature scene, and so opted to paint a man wandering along the shore to keep Professor Spearman from chiding him again. (Professor Spearman however was absorbed in his Mac at his desk, furiously searching for ideas for something to give his wife on Valentine’s Day, which had snuck up on him. Again.)

 

 

* * *

 

 

            Eren was (technically) a senior art major at Maria University, attended by his childhood friends Armin Arlert and Mikasa Ackerman. Armin was a chemical physics major while Mikasa was a dance major. The three of them had been inseparable as children. Armin the brains, Mikasa the brawn, and Eren, the one who consistently led them all into trouble. Even as college (technically) seniors they were still inseparable, but had other friends in their circle, plus one horse-faced idiot.

           

            Eren stood stiffly in the pristine lobby of the 2nd chemistry lab building with his legs pressed to a black leather couch, uncomfortable as always when surrounded by people jabbering of subjects incomprehensible to him. His expression lightened however upon seeing Marco and Armin cheerfully descending glass stairs lined with silver chrome handrails. Armin began to call out to Eren only to have his voice intensely amplified and echoed across the bustling lobby, earning scolding looks for the noise disturbance he caused, Armin’s ears tinged pink and Marco laughed, quickening his pace and tugging the blushing blonde along with him.

 

            “Hi, Eren!”

 

            “Hey, Marco, how was lab?”

 

            “It’s not my favorite, but what can you do? Having Armin as my lab partner helps.” He shrugged with an even smile on his freckled face, “I’m only doing well in that class thanks to him.”

 

            Armin made a sound of disbelief, but didn’t manage to entirely wipe a pleased look from his face. He turned to Eren, “So what’s up? You avoid the science buildings like the plague.”

 

            “I wanted to talk to you about something important over burritos. I have an idea.”

 

            “Here we go.” Armin’s tone was apprehensive, but his blue eyes twinkled in amused interest. “Take your chance to run, Marco.”

           

            “I’ve got a report due on Monday, and I don’t want to worry about it during the party, so I’ve got to get working. See you tomorrow! Don’t get into too much trouble!” Marco waved and scrambled out of the lobby while tugging a red beanie onto his short brown hair, gearing up for the ungodly cold that awaited outside.

 

            “Look at that, you made him run.” Armin turned to face Eren. “So, what’s this idea? Will it be any better than the one about putting temporary color in Jean’s shampoo?”

 

            “Yes, and that was a first-rate idea!”

 

            “It was so adolescent, and I’m pretty sure he cried upon discovering his suddenly fluorescent pink hair.”

 

            “You were holding back laughter.”

 

            “Tears of sympathy, Eren.”

 

            “You helped me find which brand would give the strongest color and hold.”

 

            “Chemistry research.”

 

 

* * *

 

 

            Armin sank down in the red booth, mouth slightly gaping and a comatose glaze across his eyes. “No more burritos.” He managed. Eren took another bite of his own.

 

            “Weak.”

 

            “My body functions as a normal human’s should and has a limit to what it can eat during a short period of time.”

 

            “Yolo.” Armin looked at Eren with disapproval.

 

            As their classes were both over for the day and Mikasa still had dance practice, Armin and Eren opted to go out for burritos on their own. “What’s this grand idea? You’re not planning on doing something _romantic_ for Valentine’s Day, are you?”

 

            Eren choked on a tomato chunk, not expecting that jump in logic. “What? Hell no.” He was surprised to see disappointment flash across Armin’s face. Other than the occasional drunken escapade he didn’t have much of a love life recently, and it wasn’t a topic they discussed.

 

            “I’m kidding, Eren.” Armin didn’t talk about his relationships either, but unlike Eren it wasn’t because there was nothing to discuss. “So?”

 

            “I think the three of us should go on a road trip.” Blue eyes brightened in interest, but waited for him to continue. “I was thinking that this spring break we could go to California or something. Mikasa seemed to be against it, so maybe we can go somewhere else. But I think we could do it, and if that won’t work we could head somewhere like Florida, and I _had_ been thinking about going to Florida during spring break but we’d be stepping over drunk kids like Jean if we went there then.”

 

            “Why California specifically though?”

 

            “I just thought since because it’s a long trip, and well… I thought it’d be our last chance to all be together before we get busy with…stuff.”

 

            Armin laughed, “We’re already pretty busy with “stuff,” Eren. But we’re still here eating an unhealthy amount of burritos together.”

 

            “Well, yeah, but we’re at school together. Who knows what will happen after graduation, you’ll probably join an evil scientist organization or something and plot against humanity in seclusion.”

 

            “A perfectly respectable career.” Eren’s green eyes still appeared clouded with unvoiced anxiety, and Armin quickly sought to soothe him. “Eren, without you I’d do nothing but study and research and have zero social confidence, and I’m always going to be down for a 3 AM IHOP run even when I’m plotting to destroy humanity, so shut up.” Upon spotting the abashed blush spreading across Eren’s face, Armin continued, “A road trip sounds fun. But you hate long car rides.”

 

            “I don’t want to drive all day and sleep at night until we eventually get there. I want to stop and explore along the way, you know, see what’s out there together. I could handle _that._ With somewhat minimal complaints.”

 

            Armin ran his fingers through his blonde bangs, tone turning thoughtful. “Did Mikasa say yes?”

 

            “I told you she was kind of against it because I suggested it without a real game plan, but she’d probably agree if you could confirm it as something we could realistically do.”

 

            “It’s technically doable of course, but that’s an expensive trip, even when broken up amongst three people, especially if you want to make it more about the trip than the destination. Not to mention that we have to somehow come all the way back.” Fingertips tracing over an unused napkin, Armin appeared to be doing invisible math on the recycled paper. “I’m up for it, just give me some time to figure out how this is going to work, I can’t guarantee we can get to California or wherever, but I’ll think of something.”

 

            Grinning, Eren reached for his cup of root beer, “Awesome.” He’d expected for Armin to like the idea, but considering factors like money he hadn’t been sure if it was entirely plausible, but Armin sat before him seriously intending to plan something and make it happen.

 

            It has always been this way, even since they were children. Eren would think of a mildly stupid or adventurous idea, and it would be left to Mikasa or Armin to get them out of trouble or save them from imminent failure. Even if Eren’s ideas were wild, they always had fun, although some adventures were only fond and fun in hindsight.

 

            “You’re going to the party tomorrow, right?”

 

            Eren snapped out of his reverie, “What?”

 

            “The _Valentine’s Day_ party, Eren.” He looked annoyed. “Marco mentioned it earlier, everyone’s going.”

 

            “Of course I’m going.”

 

            “Oh, I wasn’t sure-“

 

            “When else am I going to see the holiday-appropriate pink shade I picked out specifically for Jean’s luscious locks?”

 

            “Oh god, not again.”

 

 

* * *

 

 

            Fortunately, (or unfortunately for those who would have enjoyed the results) Jean had gotten wise to Eren’s act and refused to allow him in his bathroom with a suspicious shopping bag, and Eren’s plan of turning Jean’s hair pink for Valentine’s Day failed miserably. He slumped on the L-shaped couch in the living room, ignoring the tirade of curses from the kitchen as Jean threw away the wash out color and Marco stiffly made hot cocoa and avoided taking sides.

 

            Jean Kirstein and Marco Bott had just moved in together as roommates after fall semester had ended, and Eren couldn’t imagine how such different people could stand living together. _The horse-faced asshat and the returned Jesus._ Although Eren didn’t often admit it, Jean was actually one of his good friends. They got on one another’s nerves constantly and would occasionally get into actual physical confrontations due to their headstrong personalities and insecurities, but when needed they were there for one another. Mostly.

 

            Jean marched through the doorway from the kitchen to the living room and sat on the opposite end of the couch from Eren and next to the recently seated Marco with a huff. Silence ensued for several moments until Marco spoke timidly. “So, Valentine’s Day party tomorrow.” Eren nodded, still refusing to look in Marco’s direction to avoid accidentally looking at Jean. “It’ll be our first time throwing a party here, but since it’s much bigger than any of our apartments we can invite more people over.”

 

            “Do you need any help setting up?” Eren gave up on ignoring Jean’s existence and flopped down onto his side and tilted his head to look at Marco. “Not that we care if you don’t decorate or really prepare or whatever, but earlier it seemed like Armin thought you were really excited to throw your first party here and wanted to go all out.” Eren lazily waved his hand around to demonstrate. Marco, who was planning to become a doctor, and Jean who was planning to become a lawyer, still had much time left at Maria University, and had waited until the end of their undergraduate experience to rent a house. Both came from wealthy, well respected families who were more than willing to fork over copious amounts of money to avoid the dormitories, but Marco and Jean had both spent their undergraduate years moving up through the ranks of a dorm, to an apartment, and then to a house. The house was quite older with a distinctly New England style, with a feeble, short, black iron gate beside the sidewalk and large white columns supporting the front of the house. The inside was more modern and surprisingly well decorated for two male college-aged housemates. (Eren supposed the actual money came from their parents, but the effort in the selection and setup was done by Marco, as it was hard to imagine Jean spending any amount of time planning the arrangement of the throw pillows on the couch.) “Last week my life drawing class was canceled, so in order to make up for it we’re going to run later than usual tomorrow. But after I could swing by and help set up.”

 

            “No offense Eren, but I can’t picture you taking the time to hang up heart streamers all over the house.” Marco grinned.

 

            “ _That’s_ what you’re planning?”

 

            “It is a Valentine’s Day party.” Marco voiced defensively.

 

            “Ugh, I think I’d rather go to Jackson’s for the night and drink there.”

 

            “There won’t be anyone at Jackson’s, everyone will be here! I’m inviting a few higher ups from my program too, wait until you meet one of my TAs, she’s absolutely nuts.”

 

            Eren threw up his hands, “Alright, alright, I’m going, I wasn’t going to ditch at the last minute. But seriously, let me know if you need help, I can just swing by after class and assist in your questionable decorative tastes.”

 

            Marco opened his mouth in response, but was cut off by Jean, “Marco told me he saw you after lab and that you kidnapped Armin so you could tell him about another one of your big ideas. Was that about fucking up my hair again? Because there’s no way that Armin would ever assist you with such a shitty idea.”

 

            Eren didn’t bother mentioning that Armin had in fact helped him the first time. “No, I was coming up with spring break ideas.” Jean stared back disbelievingly. “I was thinking about going on a road trip.”

 

            Marco perked up, “That sounds like fun. Have you thought of where you want to go?”

 

            “I had been thinking about going all the way to the west coast, like California or something, but Mikasa made me relay the idea to Armin to see if we could afford something like that.” Marco nodded his head in polite interest, but appeared hesitant to say anything else. It was then during the awkward moment that Eren considered asking his other friends. He’d intended to have the trip be something special between him and his childhood friends, but it might be more fun if some of the others came along as well…

 

            “I don’t know how Mikasa and Armin intend on putting up with you for a long cross-country trip, there’s no way in hell that I could do it. Count me out, man.” Jean rolled on to his left side and yawned loudly, facing away from Eren, “Dude, I’ve got work to do, hurry up and get out, you’re too distracting.”

 

            Eren raised a brown brow, “You have no pretense.”

 

            “I never do. Get out, Marco and I want to get our work done tonight so we’ll be free to set up tomorrow after class.” He waved a lazy hand at the begrudgingly standing Eren, “See you later, go have fun drawing naked people tomorrow.”

 

            Eren threw on his jacket and paced to the door while struggling to wrap himself into his scarf, “Fuck you, it’s a _drawing class_ , I’m not the one choosing the subjects to draw, it’s the professors!” He fumbled with the round door handle with his slippery mittens, and before Marco could make it to the door to help him as Jean leaned in the living room doorway and laughed at his flustered state, he finally was able to get a grip on it, “I fucking hate you, Jean, not everyone there is naked, Jesus! And thanks for the cocoa, Marco, it was fucking delicious!” And with that a blushing Eren stomped into the icy air and cursed at the temperature as Marco and Jean looked on from the front window, Marco waving and laughing while Jean smugly flipped off the bundled mass that was Eren.

 

 

* * *

 

 

            _Fucking fuck._ Eren scrambled to the ground, avoiding the roomful of eyes which were all most certainly on him. He picked his fallen easel off the ground, returned it to a standing position, brushed off his canvas, and returned it to its perch. As expected, the entire room was staring at him. Some looked annoyed, likely the sudden clatter of the fallen easel had startled them and affected their own work, while others looked sympathetic to Eren’s embarrassment at the ordeal. The model turned away from Eren to face students on the opposite side of the room. Annie Leonhart, who was sitting near Eren, caught his eyes and quirked a brow in question.

 

            The first half of Eren’s life drawing class had gone well, but upon entering the second half, or the makeup half from the previous Friday, everything had gone downhill. He hadn’t been paying attention when the model first stepped up onto the platform, he had been more preoccupied with placing his utensils in their optimal position, so he could reach for what he needed more efficiently to finish more quickly and be able to help Marco and Jean set up.

 

            He glanced up, duly ready to begin when the model turned and happened to glance at him. Eren was initially surprised, normally their class models were directed to avoid looking at the students as much as possible and look beyond them at the walls instead. Once he actually looked at his subject it hit him that this session’s model was extremely attractive. Ridiculously.

 

            As an experienced art student, Eren didn’t particularly feel attraction to any of the models he sketched in class or when building his portfolio. He normally preoccupied himself with the task at hand, as would be expected of any professional artist. Thus, he was quite startled by his own reaction to the stupidly attractive class model upon making eye contact and nervously ducked his head behind his easel, attempting to block himself from the model’s view. Plan failing spectacularly, the model had openly stared at the flustered Eren who had somehow managed to knock over his easel in an enormous clatter while lunging for his utensils.

            Eren returned his abused easel to its rightful position and soberly returned to his task, avoiding Annie’s questioning looks, longing for Jean and Marco’s overly festive party to begin, and attempting to ignore the fact that the model was now noticeably avoiding his direction.


	2. Chapter 2

 

            A fresh layer of powdered snow had fallen during daylight hours, covering Maria University’s campus. Jean Kirstein’s and Marco Bott’s house was located within easy walking distance on Trost Avenue, but such a walk turns into a battle against gravity and the elements as sidewalks cover with ice, even if the few small hills along the avenue were gentle ones.

 

            Eren had struggled in the makeup class, and ended up finishing later than expected. He had thrown his sketch unceremoniously onto the nearly complete pile of assignments and hurried out of the room, not seeing the pair of eyes following his retreating, well bundled figure.

 

            Once in the safety of the empty hallway carpeted in a musty blue, Eren fished his iPhone out of his jean pocket to check the time. He thumbed past text messages from Jean and Mikasa. (Respectively, “Thanks for the big help setting up, you useless piece of shit. We’re having a few more people than expected, so we need you to pick up a few more drinks. Make sure to get the good stuff.” and “I picked up Annie from class, but she said you’d still be a while. We’re going to help set up, but let me know if you need a ride here when you finish.”)

 

            Letting out a loud sigh, Eren shuffled down the hallway, dreading the task of lugging (expensive!) bottles around in the freezing cold, but not wanting to force Mikasa out of the house. Considering he was on a college campus, and a large one at that, liquor stores were located nearby. He pushed out into the cold, half jogging towards the direction of Trost Ave. There was a well-stocked liquor store located near there, located several blocks from Grounded, a coffee shop Eren spent far too much time at. (At which he ended up ordering a cappuccino to warm himself up before struggling with alcohol through snow and ice.)

 

            It took 47 minutes from classroom to doorstep, due in part to the sheer amount of ice, the wait for his coffee, and the difficult-to-carry alcohol, but eventually Eren managed to drag himself through the black gates, up the iced brick steps, and to the New England home’s freshly painted red door. Ignoring the doorbell and thinking only of a warm house and snacks, (Krista Lenz had said that she was bringing her famous vegan red velvet cake!) he shoved himself straight inside. 

 

            The sight before him was something reminiscent of elementary school Valentine’s Day card exchange parties. White doilies swayed merrily from the doorways, heart-shaped streamers hung from the ceiling, and Eren could spot pink tablecloths draped across the snack and beverage tables. He stepped into the house, mouth agape in horror as he eyed the entrance room table sprinkled with rose petals, and the stuffed heart with arms and legs that hung from pink Christmas lights strung down from the chandelier, the heart’s inexplicably gloved hands waving just above the top of Eren’s brown hair. “What the FUCK?”

 

            “Eren’s here!” Scuffling noises echoed from the living room and kitchen. Eren expected Mikasa to be the first one out, and was surprised when Jean came first.

 

            “You. The booze?”

 

            “Thanks Jean, yeah, I’m fine. I nearly busted my ass out there carrying this through the North Pole.” Irritated, he pushed the overweight paper bags into Jean’s chest.

 

            Mikasa rounded the corner, walking carefully to avoid spilling her hot cocoa, (Marco followed, twisting a cap of Bailey’s Irish Cream back on, then waving it at the still shivering brunette in offer) “Eren, I thought I told you to call me if you needed a ride? You look frozen! Jean! We have cars! Why did you send him by himself on foot?” Mikasa took a furious gulp of her hot cocoa. _Yep, definitely Baileys in there._ Thought Eren wryly.

 

            “I’m fine, I knew you guys had cars, but I needed some time to chill after class anyway.”

 

            Mikasa moved as if to protest, but let it go. “You’re lucky Annie and I were here to help with decorating, we managed to tone it down a bit.”

 

            “ _This_ is toned down?” Eren’s green eyes widened dubiously, and glanced upwards at the stuffed heart that dangled from the chandelier, briefly wondering how it got up there.

 

            “I may have gone a bit overboard,” Admitted Marco, “Everybody has ugly Christmas sweater parties, so I thought we might try the equivalent with Valentine’s Day.”

 

            Jean began setting the bagged drinks on the pink-topped beverage table which was located in the entranceway, near the open dining room. “I’ll say it Yeager, thanks for grabbing these, a lot of people are showing up tonight who we didn’t expect to come.” Mikasa paused mid-sip and frowned in suspicion. (Eren assumed she finally noticed there was alcohol in her drink.)

 

            “Uh, sure, no problem.” He was surprised by the gratitude from Jean, who usually tricked him into doing cumbersome, thankless tasks as revenge whenever Eren won a fight.

 

            But the gratitude was short lived. “Even if you did buy nothing but shitty drinks.”

 

            Eren opened his mouth to retort, but was cut off by a resounding thud from the living room. The four scrambled down the hall and through the doorway.

 

            Nothing seemed out of the ordinary, all precious electronics were in their rightful place, the coffee table was upright, and the L-shaped couch was piled upon by happy university students, although their faces hid a shadow of guilt. Armin Arlert stood near the white fireplace, giving someone directions over the phone. (“If you’re coming from the university, it’s on the left. It’s 155. That’s because odd numbered houses are on the left… They’re on the right from the opposite direction…”)

 

            While Marco joined the couch group and sat on the leather armrest, Jean asked, “What was that? Who’s trying to destroy our house?”

 

            Reiner Braun and Annie Leonhart exchanged a glance as Jean swelled. Mikasa coolly took another sip of her drink and rescued the guilty comrades, “Armin, I know we’re at a party, but try not to go and break everything.”

 

            “Hah?” Gaped Armin in confusion, gripping his phone with one hand in clear innocence as Eren snorted. Armin rolled his blue eyes at Mikasa and returned to his phone call.

 

            Eren sat on the carpeted floor facing the couch and accepted the Black Russian that Mikasa had prepared for him in advance, knowing his tastes well. Bass-heavy music blasted from upstairs followed by loud whoops, and laughter echoed from the dining room as someone poured chips into a bowl.   “So what have I missed?”

 

            Annie sighed while rearranging her blonde bangs, “There’s an ongoing billiards competition on the second floor, they’re debating ordering for pizza or Chinese up there, someone’s raiding the chips in the dining room, and I’m 95% sure there are a few people smoking in the guest room.”

 

            Jean began to cough loudly, choking on a particularly misshapen ice cube he had swallowed upon hearing the update, “Oh _fuck_ no. The smell’s going to linger, and if my parents ever get a whiff of that during a visit… Shiiiit. Reiner, dude! Back me up with muscle!” Jean scrambled from the room, while Reiner followed, albeit lazily and looking entirely unintimidating.

 

            Krista pushed her small frame off the couch. (She had been seated in between cushions and had appeared as if she was slowly being absorbed by the furniture itself, Eren hadn’t even noticed that she was there at first.) “I put my cakes in the fridge when I arrived, so if it’s okay with everyone I’m going to take them out so we can all enjoy them together at room temperature after dinner. Do you mind if I do it now?” She tilted her head at Marco while smoothing out her pleather skirt and readjusting her pink top.

 

            _Cuuuute._ Thought Eren. He had met Krista Lenz in his Psychology 101 level class during freshman year. As a blonde haired, blue eyed, intelligent, and extremely sweet girl in an entry level course, Krista had been frequently and determinedly pursued by boys enrolled in the course. Eren had eventually taken it upon himself to help ward off those with less than honorable intentions, and from there the two had grown close over their undergraduate years.

 

            Marco laughed, “Those cakes are going to be devoured pretty quickly, chilled or at room temperature. But go ahead if you like.” He shifted his weight, (Eren noted Marco still firmly grasped the bottle of Bailey’s) and slid off the leather arm rest, taking Reiner’s now vacant seat.

 

            Loud voices erupted from upstairs, either someone had lost a game of billiards, or Jean and Reiner had located the accused smokers. The volume from above noticeably contrasted with the peace (or mild awkwardness) of the living room. Annie’s gaze shifted to Eren, and remembered his odd behavior from class. “Is that drink going to help you settle down, Eren?”

 

            He furrowed his brows, “I think I’m pretty calm now…?”

 

            “You weren’t earlier.”

 

            “Huh?”

 

            By that point Marco was listening to Annie, and Mikasa stared at Eren with worry clouding her features. “Earlier.” Annie sighed, “In class. You were kind of jumpy and weird. More so than usual.”

 

            “Oh, that? I was just in a hurry to begin so I could come here and help out, but that ended up completely backfiring.” Although slight, pink began to show on his cheeks; everyone noticed. (Except for Armin who was now irritably giving directions to another caller, “You’ve been here at least five times by now, how don’t you remember the location?” but hidden behind blonde bangs, blue eyes were beginning to wander back curiously to the group.)

 

            “You nearly launched your easel into outer space.”

 

            “I fumbled and knocked it over, what’s the big deal?” Eren avoided looking at the now coy Annie and pretended to be fascinated by a bowl of Sweethearts on the coffee table. However, his attempts to play off his actions failed miserably due to the blush upon his cheeks, as well as the rising volume and defensive tone of his voice.

 

            Annie took a sip of her vodka, “You were completely composed during the first part of the class with the previous model. You even finished a bit early. Yet the _second_ the new model struts up front and looks at you, you completely lost it.” (By now Armin was blatantly eavesdropping.)  

 

            “Who was the model?” Inquired Mikasa, black eyes impassive. The two girls exchanged a glance.

 

            “I dunno, not that familiar looking. He was probably a last minute fill in.”

 

            “ _He?_ ” Echoed Armin, Mikasa, and Marco in unison. The blush deepened and spread to Eren’s ears. He quickly drained the remainder of his Black Russian.

 

            Armin hastily hung up (“Please just use Google Maps like everyone else, Christ, dude.”) and hurried back to the couch, plopped down beside Mikasa, and leaned forward towards Eren with a devilish glint in his eyes, “You had a destined encounter on Valentine’s Day and thought you could just deny it? Not to mention you even had to sketch him.” A sly grin appeared on his face, “I’d love to see that sketch considering you even stayed _late_ for once to finish it.” Marco snickered, and even Mikasa was smiling.

 

            “Armin!” A thoroughly embarrassed Eren tossed a white Sweetheart at the blonde and was preparing to make his escape upstairs when a loud commotion came from the entrance hall. “What was-“

 

            “What’s up nerrrrrrds?” Connie Springer marched into living room and lifted his left arm to brace it against the white wall forming the entrance to the living room.

 

            Eren was the only one to speak, “Connie. What the _hell_ are you wearing?”

 

            “This _is_ a Valentine’s Day party, isn’t it?”

 

            “Well, uh, yeah. But…” Eren looked to Mikasa for assistance, but she, like everyone else was too distracted by Connie’s outfit to be of any help.

 

            Connie Springer was also a senior at Maria University, but he was a theater major. Like most theater people, he was quite sociable and well known for his humorous (although not always witty) antics. For the party he had donned an extra-large condom costume. “Hannah nearly pissed her pants laughing.” He gestured towards the dining room.

 

            “I think you should go find Reiner and Jean then.” Marco offered with a smile. “They’ll probably be jealous that they didn’t think of it themselves.” Knowing Reiner and Jean, Connie would likely end up being the hero of the night.

 

            Connie’s chest swelled, “I do take pride in my bald head as well as my originality. Where are they?”

 

            “They went to discourage some smokers in the guest room. But considering that they haven’t come back yet, I’d imagine they got distracted by something going on upstairs. We’ve got alcohol set up there too. You guys want to go check it out?” Marco turned to the others.

 

            Annie shrugged, “Why not?” As she stood, everyone began to follow suit and filter out. It had grown steadily louder upstairs and Eren had been wondering what on Earth was occurring up there.  As he began to exit the room he gave silent thanks to Connie for inadvertently distracting everyone.

 

            However, Armin had not forgotten the topic and whispered to Eren, “Don’t worry. By this time tomorrow I’ll have his name and number for you.”

 

            “Oh my god, Armin!” They stopped by the stair bannister in the entrance hallway. “Look, it’s just that he looked me right in the eye, and normally our models are instructed not to do that.” Armin stared at him, entirely unperturbed. “And he also looked really intimidating. The guy was kind of scary looking, honestly.” Armin’s face was still full of doubt, but the two were interrupted by loud banging at the front door.

 

            Armin let Eren off the hook for the time being. “Looks like she’s here. Did you know that I was just on the phone with Connie giving him directions?” They moved towards the front door, “He’s been here so many times already and he still managed to get lost. And even though he was walking, he didn’t want to use Google maps on his phone. I literally think he was outside the house and asking me for directions. And just before that I had been giving directions to this person who you’re probably about to meet now. I should warn you, she can be a bit of a handful.”

 

            “Oh, so is she the TA you and Marco have?” But Armin had already opened the door.

 

            “Armin! My favorite little He-Man!” He-Man was quickly enveloped in a bone crushing hug. The woman who entered had glasses and brown hair that was a little messy, as if she had just finished battling something. Eren had little time to observe anything else before he himself was suddenly pulled into a hug. “Eren!!!” She cried. He made a choking sound of confusion as air was forcibly squeezed from his lungs.

 

            “Marco and I have talked about you in class.” Armin rushed to explain, and Eren felt the woman turn to look back at the blonde, further twisting him into a more uncomfortable position.

 

            Eren was released, and was able to get a better look at the woman before him. Her eyes were also brown, and he was a little taken aback to see the warmth that glowed in them as she looked at him with a smile. “Hi Eren, it’s nice to finally meet you. I’m Hanji Zoe.” She extended a hand.

 

            “Nice to meet you, Hanji.” He smiled back tentatively as she gave a firm handshake.

 

            “We’re ordering pizza! Is that okay?” Mikasa called from the staircase. Eren opened his mouth to reply, but was interrupted by Hanji.

 

            “Yes! You must be Mikasa! I’ve heard all about you and Eren from Armin.”

 

            Mikasa stared for a moment, but eventually a look of recognition passed over her pale face. “You’re Armin’s TA, Hanji, right? It’s nice to meet you. It’s a little quiet downstairs at the moment, and from what I’ve heard about you, you’d prefer to be where the action is. You can come up here if you’d like.”

 

            “Thank you Mikasa, but I’m going to need Armin and Eren’s help in a little experiment.” (Eren was having a difficulty deciding if he was uncomfortable with Hanji’s familiarity or not.) Mikasa looked mildly suspicious, but said nothing and only watched apprehensively as Hanji steered both Eren and Armin into the now vacant dining room. Hanji directed the hesitant two to the pink-topped beverage table and peered at the array of bottles. “Let’s have a looksee at what you’ve got here… Ah, amaretto. Good, let’s start with this.” Her nimble hands unscrewed the rectangular black cap and she sniffed the opening.

 

            “Um, Hanji, wasn’t it? What exactly did you mean by experiment?”

 

            “I’m Marco and Armin’s TA, aren’t I?”

 

            “Um, yes…?”

 

            “I’m studying to become a chemist. Experiments are very important in my field.” She leaned forward, busying herself with the Italian alcohol, blocking her subject’s view. Eren turned to glance back at Armin, but he stood with a bemused look on his face. Silver spoon clinked against glass, and an amber liquid was pushed at the green eyed student. “Here you are, mixed ‘specially for you, Eren.”

 

            “Oh, um, thank you.” The woman’s familiarity with him was odd, but Eren assumed she was the type to quickly be familiar with anyone. _TAs don’t typically go to their student’s house parties. They must have gotten close pretty quickly._  Eren accepted the drink (while failing to notice Armin’s sudden unreadable expression) and took a sip. He swallowed it quickly, tongue retreating to the back of his mouth as a feeble, “Ugh.” escaped his throat. The taste was somewhat akin to the feeling of having your insides attacked by the heavy taste of bitter medicine completely unmasked by a nutty aftertaste.

 

            “Wellll…? How do you like my Jägeretto?” Armin stifled a snicker. “It’s a Jägermeister amaretto blend. Mixed just for you.”

 

            “I’ve never experienced anything quite like it before.” _And never want to again._ Eren had grown accustomed to Jägermeister and Jägerbombs being tossed at him due to his last name, (The joke gets old) and he had also become fond of amaretto after Marco had introduced it to him. But the two mixed together formed the most unfortunate and memorable of drinks.

 

            “Excellent. Let’s try something a bit more original for my favorite student.” Hanji’s brown eyes glinted with madness as she slowly leaned forward to inspect the collection before her. (“Fucking hell, distract her!” Mouthed Armin desperately.)

 

            “S-so, Armin’s your favorite student already? Didn’t you just meet him at the start of this semester?”

 

            “That’s the thing.” Hanji sighed. (Armin bit his nails, watching her hand slide from ornate bottle to bottle.) “All you cute little senior undergrads finished your thesis last semester, and I heard about his genius work then. I never managed to catch his name, however.” She smiled fondly at the still nervous Armin. “I was surprised that despite being in the same field we hadn’t managed to meet yet, but we finally did.” As Hanji became caught up in her story she simultaneously became distracted from her task, relieving Armin. “I went out for coffee with him and Marco after lab the other week, and I told them about how much Valentine’s Day was going to suck this year.”

 

            Eren felt a twinge of sympathy. He’d never developed the massive hatred for Valentine’s Day that most perpetually single 20 somethings did, but it had grown more and more exhausting for him to put up with his festive friends every year. “Are you not seeing anyone at the moment?”

 

            Hanji tilted her head back and cackled like a witch, (“Is that a fucking ghost?” Screeched an upstairs party goer.) “You’re just my type Eren, but I’ll have to decline. No, I’m in a relationship. My research partner, actually. But he’s at a conference at Georgia Tech in Atlanta which so happens to be on Valentine’s Day.” Eren hummed in sympathy. “And so your friends decided to invite me tonight. By the way,” She cast a sidelong glance at Armin who stood uneasily at her right side, “I took the liberty of inviting a few friends of my own, Armin.”

 

            “Wait, what? You did?”

 

            “Mmmm-hmm, but they won’t show up until later. I’ll hold up on mixing your drink, Armin. We can wait for Eren to finish my concoction and head upstairs. Marco mentioned Twister and I want to see my drink’s effects on Eren’s balance.”

 

 

* * *

 

 

            By the time the overwhelmed pizza delivery boy arrived, (and who was repeatedly asked to join the festivities) the party was in full swing, the billiards competition had been abandoned for severely off key and dramatic karaoke, and an eclectic range of music blared from the large speakers in the living room amidst voices and laughter.

 

            Eren was immediately made by Jean to pass out paper plates, who cited Eren’s late running class as reason enough for his assistance being mandatory. Marco carefully laid out the pizzas, which ranged from extra cheese, pepperoni, pineapple, stuffed crust, to roasted vegetable. The dining room was rushed by hungry students (“If any of you get pizza on anything I swear I’ll hang you from the chandelier along with that damn heart!” Threatened Jean.) while Eren hung back with the disgruntled Jean and oddly contemplative Armin, electing to wait until the crowd thinned. There were a good 20 people in attendance, and although Eren did have a deep love affair with pizza, getting trampled for the sake of the first slice didn’t seem entirely worth it. Hanji, however, did stake her life for the first (second and third) slice of stuffed crust, and slipped out of the dining room with surprising ease as she hoarded her prize. “I’m starving.” She unnecessarily noted to the trio. “I’m worried about my friends though. I thought they’d be here by now, and if they don’t hurry up, all the pizza will be gone!”

 

            “I’d be more concerned if they can arrive before Krista’s vegan cakes are erased from existence. I think most of us ended up coming _because_ we heard she was baking red velvet cake.”

 

            “Screw you, Armin, you guys came because it’s _my_ party.” This didn’t stop Jean’s eyes from jealously scanning the packed dining room for the offending cakes. “Wait, you invited people, Hanji? This is our first party here, and I don’t know about having people over when nobody knows them…”

 

            “Trust me two-tone, we go _waaay_ back. They’re good people. Fundamentally.”

 

            _Fundamentally?_ Eren stared at Hanji and opened his mouth, but was interrupted by the ringing doorbell.

 

            “I knew it.” Smiled Hanji. She waved Jean to the door, who suddenly became nervous from Hanji’s enthusiasm. He took a moment to brush off his red button up shirt and black pants and to cast one last distrustful look at the grinning woman before swinging the door open.

 

            Although Eren had only just met Hanji, he had assumed that the friends she had more than likely forced into attending a cheesy Valentine’s Day party hosted by undergrads were her fellow young colleagues or graduate classmates from Chemical Sciences. But the person standing on the porch was most clearly not from Chemical Sciences.

 

            “ _Erwin Smith?_ ” Echoed Armin and Jean in unison. Eren simply stared. Oh yeah, definitely Erwin Smith. He was instantly recognizable by his tall, muscular physique and his swept back blonde hair. His face appeared chiseled to an almost unfair extent, with large blue eyes below his characteristically thick brows. The Smith family was well known on campus due to their many scholarships given to students who were unable to afford the expenses of university. Erwin Smith had already gotten his Ph.D. by the time Eren was a freshman, but he often returned to Maria for seminars and conferences, and would regularly be the subject of campus news, which goes with the territory of being the gorgeous son of a rich family who had begun to make a name for himself in human rights organizations.

 

            His blue eyes swept over all of them and he gave a wry smile, “I _was_ going to introduce myself. Thank you for extending an invitation to Hanji, I’m afraid I wouldn’t have been able to keep her entertained today with Moblit gone.” He looked to Jean, “This is your residence then? Thank you, I apologize for arriving late, but I was suddenly called out for coffee.”

 

            Jean clearly didn’t know what to do with himself, “Uh, yes sir! I didn’t know that you were coming! Uh, there’s…We have pizza? I’m Jean Kirstein.”

 

            “Thank you, Jean. I was hoping there’d be pizza.” Erwin turned to Armin and Eren. (At some point Hanji had taken off with her prized pizza.) “You must be Armin, I’ve heard so much about you from Hanji.”

 

            “All good things, I hope.” Armin’s performance had begun smoothly, but upon Erwin’s smile in response he lost steam. “Uh-It’s nice to meet you! Sir.” He added quickly.

 

            Erwin then turned to Eren. “Hi, I’m Eren Yeager, it’s nice to meet you.” Erwin thanked him, and shook his hand. They stood awkwardly together for several moments, Eren and Armin a bit starry eyed, and Erwin began to eye those crowding the food table.

 

            “I skipped lunch today, so I’m actually rather hungry. Is it okay if I grab a few slices now?” Erwin inquired, casting longing looks at the pepperoni pizza.

 

            “Of course!” Piped Armin, “I think we’re out of plates though, I can get you one from the kitchen.”

 

            “Oh. I almost forgot. I brought alcohol as well, my friend’s unloading it. They might need help in that ice, if I could take care of that first…”

 

            “Oh! It’s okay! Eren can do it!”

 

            “Uh, I-?”

 

            “Do you mind, Eren?” Erwin was still smiling, and from behind his back Armin waved furiously at Eren, _Please gooooo._ He didn’t know if it was a desire to be friends with someone so intelligent and successful or simply a case of Erwin being attractive, but Armin clearly wanted Eren to be out of the way, and he obliged him.

 

            “It’s cool, I’ll go lend a hand. Make sure nobody finishes off the cheese pizza without me.” He decided against donning a coat, as he’d only be outside for a few minutes, and Jean and Marco’s over capacity coat rack more closely resembled a mass of blankets. He swung open the red door and scuffled outside, hopping down the brick steps and cautiously walked down the slippery brick path that led to the driveway. He heard a rustle of paper bags near a silver sports car. _Christ, Erwin Smith is no joke._ “I’m Eren…Yeager? Can I help… you?”

 

            The small figure that had been bending over stood quickly upon hearing Eren’s approach, and Eren’s self-introduction crashed and burned as both of them looked at each other, their breath steaming in the frozen air.

 

            Erwin’s friend was the stupidly attractive, intimidating model from class.

 

_Shit._


	3. Chapter 3

 

            “Do you normally tack a question mark to the end of your name?”

 

            “Huh?” Eren was too busy in taking in the sight of the shorter man before him. His eyes were a piercing icy blue, (grey?) framed by thin black brows furrowed in annoyance. He had black hair which reached his ears and styled in an undercut, and had a muscular build. He was dressed differently from the life drawing class, donning a black suit, shirt, and red tie. His nose and cheeks were tinted red, and he seemed to be as equally displeased with Eren as he was with the bitterly cold air.

 

            “Just take a picture, it will last longer.”

 

            “What?”

 

            The evidently irritable man rolled his eyes, “You’re doing a shitty job of helping. Get back inside with the other kids.”

 

            “I’m supposed to help you instead of Erwin. I mean Mr. Smith.”

 

            “ _Mr. Smith?_ Jesus, do me a favor and don’t call him that again. Freaks me out. And if you’re going to help, do it. There’s another bag still in the trunk.”

 

            “O-okay.” Eren racked his brain for a topic that wouldn’t result in the shorter man snapping at him again. “Is this your car?”

 

            “Does it _look_ like my car?” The man had been loudly fumbling with the car’s keys, evidently trying to figure out which button popped the trunk open. He had paused to raise an irritated brow at Eren, but returned to uselessly pressing unmarked buttons on the key.

 

            “Would you like for me to try?”

 

            “Yeah, I’m going to hand the keys of my friend’s fucking expensive new Camaro to some dumb college brat who’d somehow total it trying to pop the trunk.” He pointedly stabbed another button on the key. Something inside the car made a feeble whirring sound and the two froze. “Here.” The keys were roughly shoved at Eren’s chest. “Just… Open the fucking trunk.”

 

            After squinting at the buttons for several seconds, Eren pressed one on the upper right hand corner. The trunk immediately popped open. The two stood in silence for a moment, and Eren could feel the other man’s eyes on him, daring him to make a comment. He decided not to risk his life and compliantly retrieved the paper bags, the other man placing a hand above him on the top of the trunk as he leaned inside to fetch them. (A gesture that struck Eren as either hurried or thoughtful. But in all honestly he was mostly surprised that he could reach the top.)

 

            “Don’t drop it. I saw your incredible fumble with the easel earlier.”

 

            _Annnd he recognized me._ Eren didn’t know why he thought he could pretend that their embarrassing encounter didn’t happen when upon meeting again there had been a momentary look of shocked recognition on the shorter man’s face before reverting back to being expressionless. “Aha, so you do recognize me! Yeah, that was pretty stupid of me-“

 

            “Of course I remember you.” Eren felt a flush forming on his cheeks. _From the cold, the cold._ The man closed the trunk and locked the Camaro with only a little bit of struggle. “How could I forget the guy in the advanced level course blushing like a virgin in a fully clothed session?” Eren’s flush switched from one of pleasure, then mortification, and finally anger.

 

            “I didn’t!”

 

            “Whatever, brat.” A ghost of a smile twitched at the man’s lips.

 

            _Fuck you!_ “Why were you there, anyway? I’ve never seen you there before! Did Mr. Smith-“

 

            “Erwin.”

 

            “What?” Eren was distracted from his babbling.

 

            “I told you to call him Erwin. Let’s hurry and get these inside, it’s fucking freezing.”

 

            Eren shrugged and led the way up the icy brick path to the door. “Careful.” He warned, gesturing to the icy steps before maneuvering over them. “I don’t want us to risk dropping any of these when opening the door, so I’ll ring the doorbell.” They stood in uncompanionable silence. Clearly the other man wasn’t going to make an attempt at conversation. “So what should I call you then?” Asked Eren, referring to the other’s preference for the absence of formalities. He shifted uncomfortable in his white pants and green button down shirt as the other man looked upon him coolly.

 

            “Levi.”

 

            “It’s nice to meet you, Levi. I’m Eren.”

 

            “Likewise, Eren.”

 

 

* * *

 

 

            “Oh my god, this is amazing, Krista.” Armin shoveled another bite of vegan red velvet cake in his mouth.

 

            Reiner squinted and examined the fluffy, moist bite that he had speared. “But like… How do you get it to do the thing without milk and eggs?” Annie swiftly grabbed his hand and shoved the piece in her mouth. Reiner, although significantly more massive than Annie knew better than to protest.

 

            “Apple sauce!” Squawked Hanji through a mouthful of cake, making Levi’s body visibly tense in disgust.

 

            “Uh, yes, actually.” The petite blonde appeared taken aback by the correct answer, “A little bit of apple sauce mimics eggs in baked goods, but doesn’t add any apple to the taste. And I just substitute soy milk for milk.” She wore a black pleather skirt and pink shirt and kept her medium length blonde hair tied to the side for the night. (Eren knew it was the hairstyle she typically wore while baking, and absentmindedly wondered if she had forgotten to undo it before the party.)

 

            Jean and Marco’s living room which normally appeared to be quite spacious had become cramped due to the partygoers flooding the new furniture and recently redone floor space. Eren was seated on the floor facing the L-shaped couch in between Armin and Mikasa. Although the two had thought to save Eren a spot, they were unwilling to battle for seats on the leather couch. It was worth noting that Levi, Erwin, and Hanji had intimidated their way to prime seats. (At the moment Hanji was leaning forward and eagerly listing other possible substitutes for egg and milk to make a fluffy and moist cake, despite some of her suggestions being either highly illegal or deadly, while the room listened wearily.)

 

            Eren took advantage of the conversation consuming the room to discuss his plans with Armin and Mikasa. “So Armin, did you check out my idea?”

 

            The blonde had been openly staring at the chuckling Erwin and jumped guiltily, “ _I wasn’t checking him out.”_ He hissed defensively.

 

            “The _road trip_ , Armin.”

 

            “Oh, erm, right.” He put down his plastic plate. “I did, actually.” He paused to dab at his mouth with a napkin. “Between the three of us…There’s no way in hell. We could afford plane tickets and a few nights at a hotel in LA or something, but we couldn’t possibly afford driving across the United States of America and staying in hotels and exploring along the way. Twice.”

 

            “But you hear about people doing it all the time, though.”

 

            “No, people do it all the time in fiction, Eren. Unless they are older, have a lot of money, are moving, or are touring in a band it doesn’t usually happen.” As Armin spoke Mikasa raised her brows as if to say _I told you so._ Although she looked disappointed herself.

 

            “But plane tickets are pretty expensive, right? Wouldn’t driving just be cheaper?”

 

            Armin quirked a brow, “No, _gas_ is expensive. And you have to pay more between the three of us for the fuel in a car traveling across the United States twice, and taking a number of detours…”

 

            “God fucking dammit.” Eren downed the remainder of his bottled Heineken.

 

            Armin rushed to placate his dejected rumpled-haired friend, “Like I said, we can fly. The main purpose is to get to a different coast, right? Or we could do a shorter road trip down south because it’ll be warmer there than here…”

 

            Hanji had evidently overheard the concern in Armin’s voice from across the living room, “Everything okay over there, kids?” Hanji’s quick switch from suggesting dangerous substances to lace in vegan cake to legitimate concern managed to catch the attention of nearly everyone in the room.

 

            As both Armin and Eren were currently too abashed to announce their copious vacation plans to a large group of blatant eavesdroppers, Mikasa leapt in, “They’re discussing vacation plans, but Eren imagined a bit too ambitiously.”

 

            “I did not!”

 

            “The three of us can’t very well handle the financial burden of a cross country road trip.” Explained Armin with a sheepish smile.

 

            Hanji looked interested immediately. “Mmm, that depends on if you’re willing to make some changes to the trip.” Eren peered at her curiously. “Like if you decided on bringing a few more people along it’d be a lot less expensive per person, or if you rented a larger fuel efficient vehicle…”

 

            Eren nodded with consideration, “I guess going in a group would be financially feasible…” Mikasa was quick to notice Eren’s hesitance to have others accompany them. But Eren didn’t want Mikasa and Armin to feel obliged to go with only him. Since the beginning of their final year he’d been fighting off worries of this being the last of the trio. They’d all made new friends and had chosen their own careers, but at Maria their social circles were almost entirely connected, and obviously attending the same university provided plenty of opportunity for them to be together. But Eren was concerned about what would happen after, which is why he had wanted to have it be something special between the three of them, but it wouldn’t be fair to Armin and Mikasa, and even himself. They had all made irreplaceable friends who all faced the same issue Eren did. So he heaved a sigh and gave in to whatever bizarre hell of a journey his group of friends would lead him on. “But I guess traveling with these two nerds might get a bit monotonous, a group would definitely be pretty crazy.”

 

            While Armin snorted and Mikasa rolled her eyes, Jean stuffed his last bite of cake in his mouth and quipped, “Yeah, it’s gonna be hard to get a group of people together who are willing to spend money to sit in a car together with you, Yeager.”

 

            Eren scowled and opened his mouth to fire off a horse joke or something equally irksome and uncreative to Jean, but was interrupted by Levi speaking for the first time since entering the house. “Where do you want to go?”

 

            “The west coast.” Levi looked away in blatant disinterest, irritating Eren and giving him a wave of determination, “I want to see the ocean.” Levi’s grey eyes met Eren’s and held.

 

            “There’s an ocean over here too, you idiot.”

 

 

* * *

 

 

 

            Eren awoke the next morning with a start. _Oh Jesus Fuck Christ, my head…_ He sank deeper under the covers until he felt a familiar dryness in his mouth. His desire for hydration outweighed his pulsing headache, and he disentangled himself from the green comforter and stepped over a snoring Jean. He couldn’t very well remember the previous night, but he could manage to recall an argument over who would sleep where, as drunks began dropping left and right. He evidently ended up in the guest bedroom with Jean, Reiner, and Connie. (At some point Jean had ended up on the floor, but Eren couldn’t tell if that was from him being voted off of the bed due to his impressive intoxicated snore or that he had more simply fallen off.) He agilely leaped over the crumpled pile that was once Connie’s condom costume. Luckily the heavy white door didn’t squeak upon being opened, and Eren was able to escape without waking anyone.

 

            Tromping down the stairs with pale morning light pouring through the windows, Eren felt relieved that Jean and Marco had the foresight to install a thick line of carpet rolling down the stairs, leaving only a few inches of the edges of the hardwood steps exposed. Massachusetts winters were cold, and despite warm air being pumped through the vents, the cold continued to creep through the wooden floorboards. As Eren descended, a gentle clatter of cups and voices could be heard from the kitchen. Eren entered, expecting Marco or Krista, and was surprised to find Armin and Erwin unsuccessfully attempting to work the coffee machine.

 

            “-seen them work it before, but it was hot chocolate then, so I’m not sure if it’s the same?”

 

            “Hmm…”

 

            “It’s a Keurig.” Yawned Eren from behind the two.

 

            “Eren!” You’re up?” Armin appeared startled at his sudden appearance. (And perhaps a bit abashed? Eren’s green eyes flicked to Erwin.)

 

            “Good morning, Eren. Are you thirsty? I can get you a glass of water.” Erwin, at least, appeared unaffected (or uninterrupted) and his eyes appeared slightly amused at Eren’s disheveled state.

 

            “You can’t even work a Keurig.” Eren croaked.

 

            “And you probably can’t work out all of the things that happened last night.” Cut in Armin. Erwin’s lips twitched.

 

            “I did something?” He looked between the two of them blankly, awaiting an explanation. Armin sighed and Erwin shuffled off, saying something about getting water. (Despite it being obvious that there was no need to leave the kitchen to do so.)

 

            “Well, first, you were convinced that Jean and Marco had adopted a cat. Jean later admitted that he _had_ told you that they had adopted one just to fuck with you. You looked all around the house in every possible hiding place. And you were pretty drunk, so you couldn’t remember that he’s allergic to cats.”

 

            He buried his face in his hands, “So I spent a long time searching around the house for a cat that doesn’t exist?”  
  
            “You were feeling pretty competitive about it, so we all just let you go for it, because it was pretty funny. We weren’t going to let you do it for too long. You figured it out on your own after about 10 minutes of surprisingly thorough searching, which is pretty impressive considering that you were drunk. You noticed that you hadn’t seen any cat bowls, toys, or litter boxes on your search. It actually didn’t make you look stupid at all, because Jean _had_ told you that he had gotten one, and you figured it out yourself while drunk.”

 

            “So did I do anything that was actually stupid?”

 

            “Not really, everything else was typical for you. You bickered with Jean about something dumb, then gave him an uncomfortably long hug in apology. And then proceeded to hug Mikasa and me for several minutes until Krista pried you off. But you generally evenly hung out with everyone. Except…”

 

            “Except?”

 

            “Except Levi. There was no subtlety about it. If he came close you’d practically run out of the room, it was weird. But at some point, you climbed out onto the roof from a second story window to do roof snow angels or something stupid Connie and Reiner convinced you to do for Snapchat, and I guess Levi went outside for some reason and saw you on the roof while Connie and Reiner leaned out the windows.  Levi said he tried to get you to come down, but you told him that it was your time to fight the void and that he could fuck the fuck off.”

 

            “What the fuck.”

 

            “I think it’s on Jean’s Story now. But anyway, Levi threw a snowball at you in retaliation, and you lost your grip because the roof was icy, you slid down and fell into a snowbank. You’re fine, by the way.” Armin added as Eren began checking for external injuries.

 

            “So you witnessed the entire thing?”

 

            Armin waved a hand, “No, I was inside. I started to get suspicious because I hadn’t seen you, Reiner, Connie, and Jean for a bit, and that always means trouble. Before I even had the chance to look, Levi found me and informed me that he just pulled you out of a snowdrift. By the time I got to you, Mikasa already had you inside, on the couch, and drinking some of Marco’s hot cocoa while she brushed snow out of your hair.” Armin paused for a moment, “You’re an idiot, by the way.”

 

            “But I didn’t do anything else, right?”

 

            “Not really. You were typical party-mode Eren the entire time, it just got kind of awkward after the rooftop incident, because you’d very obviously avoid Levi afterwards. He disappeared for a bit after telling me about pulling you out of the snowdrift, and at some point reappeared in the kitchen with Erwin, Hanji, and me. You and Jean walked in (poorly) rapping about wanting Sun Chips, but as soon as you saw Levi, you paused mid-verse (“Insane for that grain”) and spun on your heel out the doorway.”

 

            “Well, he’s scary! He nearly bit my head off when I tried to help him carry in the alcohol! I was afraid I might piss him off even more.”

 

            Erwin conveniently returned with three glasses of water fetched from the complete opposite side of the house and handed one to Eren, adding, “Levi can be a bit prickly, but he’s a good person. When something’s bothering him he takes a while to simmer down.”

 

            Eren raised his brows dubiously as he took a sip, “Hm.”

 

            The kitchen was nearly silent for the next few moments as everyone pensively drank their water. The silence was a little awkward, as Armin and Erwin had clearly been chatting before Eren’s arrival. Once Eren had enough to diffuse his alcohol fueled dehydration, he cleared his throat, “Have you two been awake for long? Wait, did you even drink last night?”

 

            “I drank a little bit, but Erwin had only two glasses of whiskey the entire night.”

 

            “There was enough liquor being consumed without requiring any additional assistance from me. And someone needed to keep an eye on things. You fell off a roof after all.”

 

            Eren chose to ignore that last bit. “So it wasn’t just me who was drunk, then.”

 

            Armin laughed, “Definitely not.”

 

            “Is anyone else up?”

 

            Erwin pulled out his phone, (Eren jealously noted it was a very expensive looking model. A Note? One of the ones that blows up?) “Your friend Marco came down around 6:00, but we sent him back to bed, he didn’t seem fully recovered yet. He was planning on buying donuts for everyone to eat when they woke up.”

 

            “Donuts?” Suddenly spoke a voice from behind them, making Armin jump and Eren nearly knock over his glass.

 

            Levi stood in the doorway looking expectantly at Erwin. He had evidently just showered, as his black hair was still slightly damp. (Eren fruitlessly tried to stop his eyes from lingering on it.) He was no longer in the suit from the previous night, and instead wore dark green pants with a navy blue, long sleeved V-neck. “Did you bring a change of clothes with you?” Blurted Eren.

 

            “Yes.” Levi quipped neutrally, pointedly glancing at Eren’s now wrinkled green button up shirt he had been wearing since yesterday. He looked back to Erwin and repeated, “Donuts?”

 

            “Our friend Marco was going to pick up donuts a little while ago, but he looked kind of pitiful, so we sent him back up to sleep.” Answered Armin.

 

            “Then I’ll get them. I’m already dressed and fucking hungry as shit.”

 

            It was then that something that sounded like a large wooden cube falling down the stairs surprised all of them. “Hanji’s awake.” Murmured Levi.

 

            “Erwiiiin.” A faint voice called from the foyer. “Water. Medicine. Food. YouTube. My lab.”

 

            The summoned sighed and moved towards the white wood cabinet that housed the glasses, “Armin, do you know where the medicine cabinet is?”

 

            “Umm… I’d imagine that Marco designated one somewhere? By the linen closet upstairs? Or maybe the laundry room?” He looked around uncertainly, running his hand through his slightly ruffled blonde hair.

 

            “Erwiiiiin!” The voice whined louder. Erwin immediately turned and hurried out of sight to the incessant Hanji. Armin in turn hurried out through the opposite doorway that led to the laundry room and garage, leaving Eren abandoned while meekly holding his now empty glass.

 

            Levi finally turned to look at Eren, “Is there not any food left in this house? I’ll go and buy the damned donuts.”

 

            “Do you want me to go with you?” Offered Eren hesitantly. He’d expected Levi and Erwin to go together, as they were actually friends. But Erwin was currently struggling to carry a deadweight Hanji to the living room based on the echoes from the foyer. Armin was on a hunt for medicine, Levi was off to buy breakfast, and Eren felt bad for standing uselessly in the kitchen.

 

            “I can do it by myself.”

 

            “Oh, okay…”

 

            Levi left briskly, leaving Eren wondering if he should start the dishwasher as it was full from all the cups they had gone through last night. Several minutes later he was kneeling on the marble floor and squinting at the wide array of complicated and unlabeled buttons on the evidently new dishwasher when Levi returned, now bundled in a black coat and navy scarf. “Fine.” He sighed, “You’re coming with me.”

 

            Eren remained on the marble floor, mouth gaping open, but quickly snapped it shut when Levi glared at him in impatience. _Maybe he felt bad?_ He was about to thank him as he rose to his feet, but Levi suddenly tossed Erwin’s car keys at him.

 

            “You’re driving. I can’t figure out the keys.”

 

            _Or not._ “I can’t drive a Camaro.”

 

            “Are you not old enough to drive?”

 

            “No,” Huffed Eren, “I can’t drive Mr. Smit- _Erwin’s_ new sports car. Because if something happens, there’s no way in hell that I could foot that bill.”

 

            “I’m not walking in this frozen hellscape for donuts if I have to turn around and bring them back for everyone. Whatever, we can scavenge for something palatable here, then.”

 

            “We can use Mikasa’s Jeep, though.” Eren jogged to the kitchen’s double oven, knowing that Mikasa’s keys would be in the oven. (She did it to prevent anyone from drunk driving.) Levi followed closely behind him and stood quietly while Eren peered inside, not questioning the odd car key storage place. “She let me borrow it sometimes during freshman year, I didn’t bring my car with me that year because a parking pass was too expensive, and hers was in the shop for a while this fall, so she borrowed mine a lot then-oh, here they are. She won’t mind, especially not if we’re getting food.”

 

            Levi appraised Eren for a moment. “Then let’s go, kid. I need a cappuccino too.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Happy Valentine's Day! I've had this chapter ready for like two weeks, but since the 2nd chapter was uploaded so quickly, I wanted to make updates a weeklyish thing.
> 
> Levi was a little bit prickly in this chapter. No, I'm not going to have Levi always being borderline or straight up rude to Eren, but I feel like in the beginning it's essential for how I need them to develop.


	4. Chapter 4

 

 

            “We are not buying from Dunkin Donuts.”

 

            “We’re in Massachusetts, we are morally obligated to get donuts from Dunkin.”

 

            “Grounded doesn’t use ridiculously unhealthy ingredients in their products, and I am not going to die because of some indigestible shit that was in a fucking _donut_.” Truthfully Levi wasn’t particularly cautious about ingredients in food, he just really fucking liked Grounded’s donuts.

 

            Eren accelerated the Jeep more aggressively than was entirely necessary. “Try number crunching how much four dozen donuts would cost at Grounded.”

 

            “Cronch?” Levi quipped dryly.

 

            Eren ignored him. “If _you’re_ planning on footing the bill, I don’t mind. But if I’m pitching in, we’re hitting up Dunkin.”

 

            A pause filled the air, the whir of the Jeep’s heating serving as the only distraction between them. “Dunkin Donuts it is then.” Sighed Levi in resignation.

 

            Eren slowed to a stop as Calaneth Road’s frosted traffic light switched to red. “So did you go to Maria? Like with Erwin and Hanji?”

 

            “Yeah, but we weren’t in the same year, thank god.”

 

            “How’d you even meet them, then? It seems like you’re all different majors, and apparently not even the same age.”

 

            “Meeting Shitty Glasses,” ( _Hanji?_ Eren assumed.) “Was accidental, obviously. I met Erwin before I started at Maria.” Levi’s tone was sharper than it was before, and Eren decided the leave the conversation there.

 

            “What do you plan on getting at Dunkin?”

 

            “For myself, or the drunks?”

 

            “Um, yourself, I suppose.”

           

            “Blueberry cake or die.”

 

            Eren wrinkled his nose. “That’s actually the lamest choice that you could make, it’s almost impressive.”

 

            “Don’t insult someone’s donuts, you dumb fuck.”

 

            “But why would blueberry cake be your first choice on our Dunkin specific run? That’s something I’d snag at an airport. I’m glazed chocolate cake for life and after death.”

 

            “In case you haven’t noticed, it’s 8 am after a drinking night. I’m not willing to put something like glazed chocolate cake in my stomach if there’s even a slight chance that it might come back up later.”

 

            “That’s fair.” Eren subsided. Silence again. _This is weird. I should have stayed in bed, even if Jean would have put shaving cream on my face in my sleep._ “So… You like Grounded, then?”

 

            Although Levi was determinedly staring out the passenger window, his pale face was reflected in the still slightly iced windows, and although he momentarily looked disbelieving in the poor-quality conversation, as if he’d refuse to participate, he still complied. “I guess. It’s not that it’s my favorite coffee shop in the world. But it’s good and it’s just… there. I spent a lot of time there during undergrad because it was comfortable in all aspects of the word. And now that I’m back here…” He shrugged.

 

            “Did you just move back here or something? I feel like I would have noticed you around.”

 

            “I’m at Hanji’s place right now, I barged in around New Year’s and hadn’t been outside of there much the last few weeks. I don’t really know if I’m visiting or temporarily lodging there anymore. I’ve got some of my shit there and am paying utilities, so I guess I’m kind of temporarily living there.”

 

            “Oh. Wait, didn’t Hanji say she had a boyfriend? The guy who’s in Atlanta right now? Are they living together?”

 

            “Moblit? I don’t know if they were ever officially living together, they’ve got separate places, grants, scholarships, you know. Science people can get shit tons of money even while they’re still students. Up until recently Hanji would usually be staying over at his place, but something changed. I was living in Cape Cod for a while, and I tended to keep contact limited to electronic devices, and even with that it was limited. And Hanji being Hanji it can be hard to notice when something’s wrong, particularly through text or calls. Erwin was the one who suggested that I pay her an extended visit.” Levi shifted himself away from the window so he could speak to Eren better. “And what’s your living situation, kid?”

 

            _Kid?_ Eren bristled, “You’re younger than Erwin, so you can’t be that much older than me.”

 

            Levi hummed. “Still in the dorms, _kid_?” Although now his tone was more good-natured.

 

            “Fuck you, Mikasa and I share an apartment. It’s not like the money monstrosity house Marco and Jean have because of their rich families, but it’s more private than the dorms. Been there for like four years now. Art’s obviously not enough to pay for everything, especially when I’m busy building a portfolio and trying to figure out what the hell I’m going to do after school, but having a part time job manages to pay for the rest. To an extent.”

 

            “What do you do-“

 

            “Oh, dude, sick. Dunkin doesn’t look that busy right now, I guess everyone’s in drunk/chocolate/sex/lonely comas from last night, AND I can still grab a parking spot that doesn’t involve parallel parking, we’re doing this.”

 

 

* * *

 

 

 

            Approximately 40 minutes later, a bickering Levi and Eren pushed through Marco and Jean’s front door, weighed down by an impressive amount of donuts. (“ _Maybe_ if you weren’t so busy losing your goddamn mind yelling at the car that cut you off, you could have focused on what you were doing and parked like a properly functioning human being. I can _not_ believe I had to switch with you to fix your shit parking job.” “That car wouldn’t have cut us off if you didn’t force me to drive to Grounded for a god damn finicky _‘soy mocha cappuccino’_ during morning rush, we would have already been back here eating breakfast by then.” “Fuck you, fucktruck.”) Judging by the murmur of voices floating from the direction of the living room, most of those who had stayed the night were awake.

 

            “Duuuude, they’re finally here!” Moaned Connie, who was lying on top of Reiner, who was face down on the couch.

 

            “Maybe if any of you fucks had been conscious enough to place concrete orders, we could have been faster. We had to decide what to get for all of you.” Snapped Levi as he placed his boxes none-too-gently on the dining room table.

 

            A somewhat recovered Hanji entered the foyer, followed by a mildly exasperated Erwin. “Don’t say that, some of us have normal sleeping habits.” Levi was in the midst of opening the box of Boston Crèmes but stopped to glower at Hanji, looking seriously pissed at the multiple delays to his breakfast, and Eren shied away, taking the opportunity to search for Mikasa, whom he hadn’t seen since the previous night. Knowing her, she had likely awakened without hangover not long after Eren and Levi had left.

 

            He started to head towards the living room, but was halted upon hearing, “Eren!” from the top of the stairs, at the bannister. It was Krista, blonde hair in a messy bun.

 

            “Morning, I brought donuts.”

 

            “Are you okay?? I heard that you fell off the roof last night?”

 

            “Uhhhh, apparently. I don’t really remember.” Krista’s blue eyes widened in panic, “No, no, no. Not because of that.” _Probably._ “I drank a lot, and so my memory of the night is a little fuzzy. It happens when I end up drinking too much, but I tend to start to remember after being up for a bit.” She nodded reluctantly.

 

            “If you’re looking for Mikasa, she’s in the shower and should be out any minute.”

 

            “Cool. Come on down and eat!” He jerked a thumb towards the general direction of the Boston Crèmes. “Are the douchebags up?”

 

            “The…?” She blinked, “Uh, um, yes?”

 

            “Eren, stop turning Krista evil.” Armin chided, exiting the living room. “You’re finally back. Were you waiting for Hot Nows or something?”

 

            “What’s a Hot No- _oh._ Dude, we didn’t go to Krispy Kreme, I’m offended.”

 

            “I’m offended by you talking shit about their Hot Nows.” Armin fired back while absentmindedly attempting to pull his hair back into a ponytail. “But seriously, what kept you? Were you arguing over what to get? Erwin and I had to keep Hanji occupied, which was bad enough, but then Jean woke up. He wasn’t very pleased to find himself on the hardwood floor when he says he distinctly remembers having to sleep on the guest bed with you, Reiner, and Connie.”

 

            “That stupid fuck was probably snoring and annoying us, so we likely just kicked him off during the night.” (“Fuck you, you fuck.” Called Jean from… somewhere.) “We weren’t gone for _that_ long. We bought the donuts with little fuss, but then Levi demanded that we go to Grounded for a cappuccino, which just so happened to be at morning rush.”

 

            “That shrimp didn’t force you into paying for his uppity coffee, did he?” Eren and Armin turned in surprise to see Mikasa descending down the carpeted stairs, dressed in grey sweatpants, a light purple microfiber shirt, and slightly damp hair. Her eyes were on Eren, scanning him up and down. “Looks like you haven’t had any bruises form from your rooftop stunt.”

 

            “You know from experience with me that it’s pretty safe to pull typically dangerous stunts after a heavy snowfall.”

 

            “It’s safe for _me_ , but you have an incredible capacity for accidents, Eren. Which is why I’m around to stop you from certain untimely and stupid death.” She peered at the dining room, which was filling up with hungry students. “Did you get any blueberry cake donuts?”

 

            “Captain Assbutt nearly coerced me into it.” Deadpanned Eren, causing Armin to snort.

 

            “Yeah, and Captain Assbutt paid for the majority of the donuts.” Quipped Levi from the living room, arm slung over the back of the leather couch. He had somehow already snagged his share as well as prime seats on the couch without Eren noticing, and had evidently been listening. “If you’re going to call someone by an insulting name, don’t use a redundant one like _Assbutt_.”

 

            “Dickbutt, then.”

 

            “Good one, Fuckface McGee.”

 

            “You’re both equally matched in unrefined terminology, at least.” Murmured Armin. “Whatever, Mikasa and I are going to eat, come with us in the kitchen, we need to keep you two separated to avoid a hangover induced brawl.”

 

            Eren followed after Armin and Mikasa rather meekly under the cool glare of Levi, choosing glazed chocolate cake donuts, along with a single old-fashioned donut for himself. They led him to the kitchen table, which was circular and gleamed, free of any water rings caused by uncoastered drinks, and they sat upon wooden chairs painted white with light green cushions. Eren devoured his meal rather ravenously, as Mikasa did, but Armin only nibbled on his old fashioned donut.

 

            “You alright, dude?” Asked Eren through a mouthful of chocolate.

 

            Armin did his best to avoid looking at the glazed sugar on Eren’s chin. “Yeah, I’m not that hungry. Erwin and I actually found leftover pizza this morning before everyone else woke up. Cold pizza for breakfast rocks. There wasn’t that much to split between the two of us, though.”

 

            Eren hummed in lack of interest. It was quiet among the three of them for a moment as chatter from various parts of the house drifted in. Mikasa took a deep breath, “Actually, Eren, I’ve been wanting to say something for a while.” Armin paused mid nibble. “It’s partially about the road trip. I’ve also been worried… About graduation. You two… You two have been my best friends for forever. For so long it’s always been the three of us.” Eren smiled. “And when we came here to Maria it stopped being the three of us, and at first I resented that a little. I wanted it to always be the three of us, and it was safer for us that way. Eren started to make so many friends so quickly, and even you, Armin, who tended to be a bit more wary, began to make friends as well. I wanted to cling to the two of you at first, but I could see the changes, and that they were positive. So I decided to open myself up a little as well. And our different groups of friends became one group of extended friends.”

 

            “Although I wouldn’t exactly classify _everyone_ in the group as our friends.” Eren added before Armin jabbed him in the ribs with his elbow.

 

            Mikasa smiled slightly and rolled her eyes. “Sure, Eren. But we’re attending the same university, it’s not exactly difficult to stay close with people attending the same school in the same group of friends. And we’re all so different, we’ll be moving to different places, pursuing different careers, or heading on to graduate school. That scares me a little. So when Eren suggested a big road trip to mark the end of…college I guess, it made me worry that it would be like a closing act to our years together. Which is why I wasn’t exactly jumping for joy at the suggestion.”

 

            “I didn’t suggest it as part of a grand finale, Mikasa, I just wanted for us to be together-“

 

            “I know, Eren. Armin told me about what you said when you got burritos the other day. And I’m glad he did, because I wouldn’t have known that you were worrying about the same things that I was. Which is why I wanted to tell both of you that I want to go. And…We’ll always have the three of us, no matter what. But we’ve made other friends as well, and I think it would be good to go with everyone who’s become part of our extended family.” She exhaled. “I just wanted you two to know that I _do_ want to go, and that I also think it might be good for everyone to go together. It would be a good time for it.” Armin and Mikasa exchanged a short glance.

 

            “It’s not even noon and you’re going to make me cry, Mikasa.” Sniffed Eren dramatically, but with a hint of legitimacy that didn’t go unnoticed by Armin and Mikasa.

 

            “That said,” She swiped one of Eren’s glazed chocolate cake donuts and took a large bite despite his horrified shriek, “I think the trip is a recipe for disaster. But mostly everything we do together is. So you can leave it to me and Armin to save your ass when things go awry, Eren.”

 

 

* * *

 

 

            After breakfast, Eren noted that his phone wasn’t in his pockets, which was unusual for him. (Even the mildly scatterbrained tend to take a bit better care of their phones.) He left the bemused Mikasa and Armin to search for it, figuring it was in the guest room, as he had slept there. But he had only made it to the foyer when Hanji barreled into him. “Whoa! Sorry, Eren!”

 

            “Hi Hanji, no problem.” He took in her appearance. Her hair was pulled back in a slightly messy ponytail, similar to the previous night’s, but had changed into combat boots, a black skirt, and tan blouse, topped off with a white lab coat. “Are you going somewhere?”

 

            “Yep,” Said the brunette as she readjusted her glasses that had been knocked out of place in her crash with Eren. “Mad genius calls. I’ve got to get back to the lab.”

 

            “That’s some dedication.”

 

            “Says the art major in this economy.” She gingerly patted him on the head, which was a bit awkward due to Eren being fairly taller than her. “I’m usually there every day, spare for some weekends. Out of both requirement and love.” Eren remembered Levi’s comment about Hanji having received a research grant.

 

            “That’s part of the requirement of the grant, right?”

 

            “Kinda.” She fished her car keys out of her white lab coat. (Eren doubted that the coat was actually required for daily lab use, and more Hanji upping her scientist role.) “Levi and Erwin abandoned me, so I should probably be getting back.”

 

            “Oh. They’re already gone?”

 

            “To be honest, I’m surprised that they stuck around for as long as they did. When I first blackmailed-sorry, _convinced_ them into coming to the party with me, they weren’t exactly gung ho over it. Well, Erwin was compliant and pretty docile about it, but Grumpy Undercut wasn’t very happy.” Eren frowned, that was pretty par for the course. “It’s not really that surprising though, Eren.” She winked. “Erwin’s finished his Ph.D., I’m working on my Ph.D., and Levi is… Levi. It’d normally be considered unusual for us to pop in on an undergrad house party, especially with me being the TA of some of the students present. So I don’t entirely blame Levi. But they both ended up staying until the next morning. You’re good kids.”

 

            “I dunno about that, but if they stayed that long without wanting to come in the beginning, I think it might be they just stayed because you wanted them too. Rather than us being good kids, you’ve got good friends. Even if Fuckface McGee is a jerk.”

 

            She laughed, and waved him along with her. “I believe that name is Levi’s intellectual property, but I won’t tell him that you stole it from him. Can you help me look to see if cars are coming? I’ve never been very good at parallel parking, and particularly when pulling out of my space, I’m bad at spotting cars coming my way on the road.” Eren trotted after her, and Hanji politely held the front door open for him, “Watch your step.” She cautioned, referencing the ice and snow that covered the brick porch and sidewalk.

 

            Unlike when Levi and Eren had set out earlier that morning, the sun was much higher in the sky, the yellow rays piercing ice in the trees and on the ground. Combined with the glowing white snow that blanketed the Earth, it made for an overwhelmingly brilliant sight, and Eren was temporarily blinded. “Fuck, dude.” He cursed, shielding his eyes as he let Hanji go first, as she seemed less affected by the obnoxious out of season light show that nature had decided to put on, and therefore with her eyesight in tact could pick the safest path to her car. “How does this not blind you?”

 

            “Lighter eyes tend to take longer to adjust to bright lights, they’re a little more sensitive. So that goes for blues, hazels, and your gawjuss greens.” Luckily Hanji was in front of Eren, and couldn’t see the slight pink flush that crossed his face. “Annnnyway, this is me. Meet Chicacchironi.” After almost a minute of being outside, Eren’s eyes had nearly fully adjusted, and couldn’t exactly say that he was surprised that “Chicacchironi” before him was Hanji’s car, a red Mini Cooper.

 

            “Erm, hi.” Hanji was still smiling brilliantly at him, almost enough to cause his eyes more light sensitive pain, clearly awaiting a continuation of his response. “Uh…” He racked his brain for something other than _why am I not surprised that you named your car something ridiculous?_ “Is… Chick... Chir… Chicaccino a boy or girl?”

 

            “Chicacchironi.” She corrected. “I’m not going to assign a gender to my car, Chicacchironi is genderless.” Eren couldn’t tell if Hanji was joking or being completely serious, and smiled weakly in response as she unlocked Chicacchironi and climbed inside, turning the heat to full blast. He started looking for approaching cars as per Hanji’s earlier request, but she was already skillfully pulling out perfectly fine on her own, and cracked her window, “Thanks for the party, Eren.”

 

            “Well, it wasn’t really my party, it was Marco and Jean’s-“

 

            She waved a hand. “Yeah, yeah. I had fun, so thanks.”

 

            “I’m glad you did, and I hope your friends at least somewhat enjoyed themselves despite being forced to come here for you.”

 

            Hanji laughed and began to pull away, but not before adding, “I didn’t invite them for just my benefit, Eren.” 

 

 

* * *

 

 

            It was Wednesday, nearly a week after Valentine’s Day, and Jean and Marco were hosting a scary movie night. (Rumor had it that the chosen movie was Donnie Darko, one of Eren’s favorite movies. Donnie Darko certainly didn’t qualify as a scary movie, perhaps Jean had been misled by the title image that Netflix had selected, but Eren wouldn’t complain about getting to watch one of his favorite movies on the big screen in Jean and Marco’s comfortable home. _And actually getting to watch something on Netflix, because who actually pays to watch something online, amirite ladies??_ Eren drying thought to himself. _Haha, ok._ ) Eren had spent the afternoon in one of the empty life drawing rooms rushing to finish a piece that was due at 5 pm, and after barely meeting the deadline, decided to bum around outside Mikasa’s dance rehearsal space. They had driven to campus together, as they both needed to be on campus by 11, and as Mikasa’s rehearsal would finish by 5:30 or 5:45, they could drive back to Jean and Marco’s together.

 

            Eren had passed the time on his phone (watching the typically littered Facebook cooking videos and reading Annie’s latest post blasting art reposters on Instagram) as well as playing the old Pac-Man machine that sat in the corner of the lobby. Mikasa had very noisily emerged from the locker rooms at exactly 6, hair nearly fully dried, and Eren guessed the rehearsal had ended slightly early at 5:30. But he wasn’t expecting the first words out of Mikasa’s mouth to be roasting his jam.

 

            “Oh my god, _fuck_ Uptown Fuck.”

 

            “Uptown Funk.”

 

            “Whatever.”

 

            “What’s wrong with it? It’s old now I guess, and it’s not that great when you listen to it by yourself for the first time, but the next few times you hear it, particularly if you’re with the squad, people are practically going to be jazz moshing.” _Jazz moshing is a thing right? Like… Classic Michael Jackson-like dancing… But really aggressive? Whatever._

            Mikasa kept walking towards the door, and Eren scrambled after her as she searched for her keys in her bag. “Our guest choreographer is a royal douche. He picked the song and we’ve been drilling it all day, and with his nasty attitude it’s hard to enjoy it after having already heard the song a million times years ago.”

 

            “Eh, maybe he’ll chill once everybody has it down, and then by the performance you’ll be in love with it. Isn’t that usually what happens with you? Or really any kind of performance art? Connie said he never really gave a shit about High School Musical and always thought it was dumb, but when he was in it with a local theater group while he was in high school he was incredibly into it just before dress rehearsals, and cried during bows of the last show.”

 

            “Hm.” Huffed Mikasa as she held the glass door open for Eren, and then directed him to where she had parked the Jeep. They climbed in, shivering despite the brief time they had spent outside crossing the parking lot. ( _Fuck you, Massachusetts, in all your frigid glory._ Growled Eren internally, as if complaining in his thoughts would remedy the icy situation.) Mikasa momentarily fumbled with the keys in the ignition due to her fingers being numb from the cold, but she successfully started the loyal Jeep, and warm air burst from the vents. “Oh yeah, I have some good news.” Started Mikasa as she began to back the Jeep out. “I talked with Hitch today during lunch break.”

 

            “That doesn’t sound like good news.” Hitch Dreyse was a dance major like Mikasa, and although Mikasa could tolerate her due to her cool demeanor, Eren found her incredibly annoying, something that Hitch took great pleasure in.

 

            “Oh, Eren… Anyway, I mentioned that you wanted to take a road trip-“

 

            “Please sweet baby Jesus on a stick, tell me that you didn’t invite her.”

 

            “Of course not, Eren. She relishes in your irritation, but I don’t think she’d enjoy pissing you off for the entirety of a drive across the United States. And besides, we’re not friends anyway. Seeing her at practice is enough for even me, thanks.”

 

            “Oh thank god.”

 

            “As I was saying, I mentioned it, and that we were wondering about how we’d manage to do it with several other people crammed in the car with us. She said that her old dance company used to use her cousin’s van rental service. She said it’s mostly used by churches for mission trips and stuff, but some sports teams and dance companies would use them for competitions, and that every once in a while there’d be a group of kids who’d use them for a wild road trip to see a band or something like that. It’s supposed to be somewhat affordable, and seeing as that they’re big vans rather than a bus, you don’t need a special license to drive one, her cousin just recommends a little unofficial driving practice in one to correctly remember about how big the vehicle is for changing lanes and parking. There are different size options, but I think the size goes up to about 20 before you need a special license.”

 

            Eren sat in silence.

 

            “Eren?” She looked at him questioningly. “Is that okay? I mean, it’s just a suggestion.” He still didn’t say anything, staring blankly at his lap. “Eren? Are you okay?”

 

            “So you’re telling me that Hitch can _hitch_ us up with a ride?” He turned to Mikasa with a shit eating grin.

 

            “Oh my god, Eren. I’m going to make you walk the rest of the way to Marco’s.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I said I'd try to post it in a little less than a week, and I succeeded by 20 hours, lmao. A victory is a victory.
> 
> I realize that's not actually the correct way to spell the late Chica-something titan that Hanji named, but I felt a little morbid and uncomfortable with having 2015 Hanji name her cute car after a cannibal (and I think rapist?) from the 90's, so I went with the incorrect spelling that the fansubs used, so it just sounds like a ridiculous name, which works better in this case. 
> 
> Eren and Levi's conversation in the car was a little difficult for me to write but I managed, but then I realized that after having written them being somewhat friendly and open around one another, I got in the habit of it, so I had to go back in and rewrite their interactions after the car ride, because they were too friendly for too long. It's currently too early in the story for them to not be a little antagonistic to one another. 
> 
> But don't worry, I have my reasons behind this, and as will Levi for being an absolute fucktruck, well, at least excuses in his mind. Things will mellow out. At some point. Probably.
> 
> Thank you for reading! And thank you so much for commenting! You have no idea how much it motivates me to keep writing!


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> guess who's back, back again

* * *

 

 

            It was Wednesday, nearly a week after Valentine’s Day and the house party, and Jean and Marco were hosting a scary movie night. (Rumor had it that the chosen movie was Donnie Darko, one of Eren’s favorite movies. Donnie Darko certainly didn’t qualify as a scary movie, perhaps Jean had been misled by the title image that Netflix had selected, but Eren wouldn’t complain about getting to watch one of his favorite movies on the big screen in Jean and Marco’s comfortable home. _And actually getting to watch something on Netflix, because who actually pays to watch something online, amirite ladies??_ Eren dryly thought to himself. _Haha, ok._ ) Eren had spent the afternoon in one of the empty life drawing rooms rushing to finish a piece that was due at 5 pm, and after barely meeting the deadline, decided to bum around outside Mikasa’s dance rehearsal space. They had driven to campus together, as they both needed to be on campus by 11, and as Mikasa’s rehearsal would finish by 5:30 or 5:45, they could drive back to Jean and Marco’s together.

 

            Eren had passed the time on his phone (watching the typically littered Facebook cooking videos and reading Annie’s latest post blasting art reposters on Instagram) as well as playing the old Pac-Man machine that sat in the corner of the lobby. Mikasa had very noisily emerged from the locker rooms at exactly 6, hair nearly fully dried, which led Eren to assume that the rehearsal had ended slightly early at 5:30. But he wasn’t expecting the first words out of Mikasa’s mouth to be roasting his jam.

 

            “Oh my god, _fuck_ Uptown Fuck.”

 

            “Uptown Funk.”

 

            “Whatever.”

 

            “What’s wrong with it? It’s old now I guess, and it’s not that great when you listen to it by yourself for the first time, but the next few times you hear it, particularly if you’re with the squad, people are practically going to be jazz moshing.” _Jazz moshing is a thing right? Like… Classic Michael Jackson-like dancing… But really aggressive? Whatever._

            Mikasa kept walking towards the door, and Eren scrambled after her as she searched for her keys in her bag. “Our guest choreographer is a royal douche. He picked the song and we’ve been drilling it all day, and with his nasty attitude it’s hard to enjoy it after having already heard the song a million times years ago.”

 

            “Eh, maybe he’ll chill once everybody has it down, and then by the performance, you’ll be in love with it. Isn’t that usually what happens with you? Or really any kind of performance art? Connie said he never really gave a shit about High School Musical and always thought it was dumb, but when he was in it with a local theater group while he was in high school he was incredibly into it just before dress rehearsals and cried during bows of the last show. Hahaha, typical.”

 

            “Hm.” Huffed Mikasa as she held the glass door open for Eren, and then directed him to where she had parked the Jeep. They climbed in, shivering despite the brief time they had spent outside crossing the parking lot. ( _Fuck you, Massachusetts, in all your frigid glory._ Growled Eren internally, as if complaining in his thoughts would remedy the icy situation.) Mikasa momentarily fumbled with the keys in the ignition due to her fingers being numb from the cold, but she successfully started the loyal Jeep, and warm air burst from the vents. “Oh yeah, I have some good news.” Started Mikasa as she began to back the Jeep out. “I talked with Hitch today during lunch break.”

 

            “That doesn’t sound like good news.” Hitch Dreyse was a dance major like Mikasa, and although Mikasa could tolerate her due to her own cool demeanor, Eren found her incredibly annoying, something that Hitch took great pleasure in.

 

            “Oh, Eren… Anyway, I mentioned that you wanted to take a road trip-“

 

            “Please sweet baby Jesus on a stick, tell me that you didn’t invite her.”

 

            “Of course not, Eren. She relishes in your irritation, but I don’t think she’d enjoy pissing you off for the entirety of a drive across the United States. And besides, we’re not friends anyway. Seeing her at practice is enough for even me, thanks.”

 

            “Oh thank god.”

 

            “As I was saying, I mentioned it, and that we were wondering how we’d manage to do it with several other people crammed in the car with us. She said that her old dance company used to use her cousin’s van rental service. She said it’s mostly used by churches for mission trips and stuff, but some sports teams and dance companies would use them for competitions instead of a charter bus, and that every once in a while there’d be a group of kids who’d use them for a wild road trip to see a band or something like that. It’s supposed to be somewhat affordable and seeing as that they’re big vans rather than a bus, you don’t need a special license to drive one, her cousin just recommends a little unofficial driving practice in one to correctly remember about how big the vehicle is for changing lanes and parking. There are different size options, but I think the size goes up to about 20 occupancy or something before you need a special license.”

 

            Eren sat in silence.

 

            “Eren?” She looked at him questioningly. “Is that okay? I mean, it’s just a suggestion.” He still didn’t say anything, staring blankly at his lap. “Eren? Are you okay?”

 

            “So you’re telling me that Hitch can _hitch_ us up with a ride?” He turned to Mikasa with a shit-eating grin.

 

            “Oh my god, Eren, fuck off. I’m going to make you walk the rest of the way to Marco’s.”

 

 

* * *

 

 

            Mikasa did not hold out on her threat to force Eren to walk, and they pulled into Jean and Marco’s driveway right on time. “Christ.” Mikasa murmured as she and Eren unbuckled their seatbelts, “Is that Connie’s car?”

 

            “The remains of it anyway.” Connie, as a theater major, was extremely determined to move to New York and make it big, (whether he wanted to pursue the stage or standup was notoriously undecided) and didn’t give much importance to owning a car, as he had long since accepted his fate as a starving artist in New York (“But I’d start to experience escalating success by my late 20’s.” He’d always add with full confidence.) yet he still clung to his 1982 Cadillac Cimarron that appeared to only still be held together by its horrific matte red paint job. Connie didn’t drive it often, Eren assumed that was due to the car being on the verge of explosion, but both Connie and his car had a recent tendency to occasionally disappear on random weekends, returning with additional dents.

 

            Mikasa and Eren gave the car and wide berth for fear of its spontaneous combustion and hurried inside Jean and Marco’s, Eren not even bothering to ring the doorbell and let himself in. As they stopped to hang their various winter wear by the door, sounds could be heard coming from the kitchen. “Heyyyyy.” Called Eren.

 

            “Eren and Mikasa are here!” Announced Connie, peeking his head out from the kitchen to the foyer. “Wait, is Armin with you?”

 

            Mikasa finished detangling herself from her scarf and started towards the kitchen, “No? He said he’d come home after lab work. Is Marco not home yet?”

 

            “I’m here!” Marco and Connie were together in the kitchen, apparently putting pizza bites in the oven. A section of the kitchen had a half height wall serving as bar counter space, visually opening part of the kitchen to the living room. Jean sat at the bar upon a stool, busying himself with a tablet. (Apparently for educational purposes based on his stressed expression and his failure to greet or acknowledge Mikasa and Eren.)

 

            “Did you finish lab ahead of Armin or something?” Eren asked Marco.

 

            “What? We don’t have lab today.”

 

            “Armin told us he’d come after lab work.”

 

            Jean spoke for the first time, tearing his eyes away from his textbook pdf, “Armin texted me earlier. He said he’s just doing extra work at the lab. I thought he’d be here by now though.”

 

            “I thought he’d be working with Marco. If I knew it was extra work that he was doing alone, I would have given him a ride, considering I was already giving Eren one. Is he planning on walking? It’s already freezing out there and it’s dark.” Connie threw Mikasa a tired look at her concern. “He’s not going to die or anything but it’s way too goddamn dark and cold for him to be wandering around.”

 

            “Relax, you said so yourself, he’d not going to die. He’d never die without having killed off a significant number of people first.” Connie unceremoniously dumped the frozen pizza bites onto the tray, failing to follow the directions requiring precise spacing between the pieces. “We can just tell him to message us if he needs a ride. He’ll probably show up soon anyway. Eren walked here last week through all the snow and ice while smuggling booze and it’s not as bad as it was then.” Mikasa still looked moderately unhappy but that was probably due to Connie telling her to calm down when she wasn’t particularly upset in the first place. “So, with you two here, that means we’re still waiting on Armin and Sasha.”

 

            _“Sasha?”_ Repeated Eren, surprised. “What the hell, she’s back? I was starting to wonder if she’d dropped out, I haven’t seen her in _ages._ ”

 

            “The beginning of Christmas break.” Corrected Mikasa.

 

            “Yeah, whatever. She hasn’t been at any of her classes either. Armin checked, she’s enrolled in the classes, but I don’t think she’s been once. And what about work? Is she like, dead?”

 

            “She hasn’t been at her and Krista’s apartment either. Krista says she’s been sent money to cover Sasha’s rent, but she wouldn’t divulge anything else other than that she’d be back.”

 

            “Well yeah, I thought it was kind of weird that I wasn’t getting any Snaps from her the entire break and that she hadn’t even been on Facebook, but I thought she was just up to shit during the break. But nobody’s been in contact with her or seen her on campus… Other than Connie, apparently.” Eren threw Connie, who was currently busying himself properly spacing the pizza bites under the mindful watch of Marco, an exasperated glare. “What the hell man, you tell us that she’s ok after weeks, don’t give any details, and then you suddenly tell us she’s coming to movie night day-of? Of course I’m happy she’s back and ok, but… Come on.”

 

            “I’ll take care of it, Connie.” Murmured Marco, shooing him away from the snacks so that Connie could focus on Eren.

 

            Connie looked uncomfortable. “I know, I know.” Gazing at Eren and Mikasa for several moments, he eventually added, “She didn’t drop out, her absence was officially excused by the university. She’d been doing her work online for the time being, classmates streaming lectures and stuff for her. Not all her professors were super agreeable about everything, as professors can be, but there’s nothing that would result in her getting academically tanked at this point.” Eren continued to stare at Connie with a look that clearly communicated that Sasha’s academic situation (although important) wasn’t the number one poignant concern they had with her disappearance, “Okay, she’s fine. She’s fine and exactly the same, possibly even more rabid than before because she’s dying to see everyone. But she directly told me and Krista not to tell anyone about what’s been going on. And I 150% get everyone’s concern because that’s exactly how we felt at the time with the static on her end and the secrecy, but I’m serious, don’t ask her anything about it unless she brings it up with you of her own volition, and I’m sure she will eventually.”

 

            It wasn’t exactly the clearest of answers, but knowing that Sasha was finally back and doing well helped to alleviate some of the concern. Based on Jean and Marco’s lack of reaction, they had been given the same talk by Connie earlier. Mikasa seemed entirely placated, Eren suspected it was due to her being a more private person herself and understanding requests for privacy. Connie looked grateful for the wordless agreement and them dropping the subject. Unfortunately for him, Eren wasn’t _quite_ ready to let it go without some manner of response.

 

            “Oh my god is Sasha fucking pregnant?”

 

            “No! _Eren!_ ”

 

            “Oh my god, Eren.”

 

            “Eren!”

 

            “Dude.”

 

            “What? I thought it was a perfectly legitimate question, considering?”

 

 

* * *

 

 

            15 minutes later, Sasha Blouse arrived, having taken an Uber from the apartment that she shared with Krista, the one she’d recently returned to. It was her first time to Jean and Marco’s house, as they had just begun renting it at the end of last semester, when she had disappeared. Because it was her first time there, and perhaps due to her feeling a bit awkward about seeing her friends again for the first time since she up and vanished, she didn’t barge in as Eren had earlier, as she herself would typically characteristically do.

 

            Connie and Jean went to answer the door together. “HOLY FUCK I MISSED YOU GUYS SO MUCH!” Sasha, bundled in a red checkered poncho, leaped inside as soon as she saw Connie and Jean’s faces when they opened the door. She grabbed the both of them by the backs of their necks and pulled them into her chest for a bone-crushing hug.

 

            Her ever-surprising strength held them, now lost in her oversized soft poncho, amid Connie’s cries of “Yayyyy” and Jean’s “Can’t you give a normal hug like a goddamn normal person?” Eren heard the struggles from the kitchen, deciding that finishing pouring his Cherry Coke was safer than attempting to join the tangled mass in the foyer. (Apparently, the group really did become literally tangled based on the increased volume of chaos, Jean’s hair lost somewhere in the wooden toggles that fastened Sasha’s poncho closed. “That’s why I used to be a bald, Jean.” Connie jeered.)

 

            After the group disentangled themselves from one another Sasha raced to the kitchen, following her nose to the pizza bites and where she assumed her friends lurked. Eren scarcely had time to put down his Cherry Coke before Sasha crashed into him with all the force and grace of a wild boar. “Erennnn! I missed you!”

 

            “Sasha! I’ve missed you too! Grounded is far less exciting without you but we do have way more goodies in stock-“ Eren paused as Sasha _nuzzled_ into his chest, “Oookay I changed my mind, I do not miss you anymore.” He pulled her off while laughing. Sasha immediately leaped from him to Mikasa’s shoulders amidst screeched cries of the raven’s name, Mikasa being more tolerant of the of the surprising outpouring of affection. (It was eventually discovered that Sasha’s Uber driver had refused to turn on the heat and that she was freezing, and Eren was known for being a human furnace, and Mikasa was wrapped in her warm scarf.)

 

            Mikasa was still enveloped in Sasha when the doorbell rang again. “Guess that’s Armin. I’ll get it!” Deciding that Armin was much less likely to crush him to death in greeting than Sasha, Eren broke away from the kitchen to answer the door.

 

            Eren swung the red door open, expecting to see Armin’s face, but not expecting to the slightly strange TA from the Valentine’s Day party with her arm wrapped around a mildly apologetic looking Armin. “Surprise! Hi, Eren!”

 

            “Oh, hi, Hanji.” Her smile widened at the use of her name, “Hey, Armin. Did you guys come here together?” His question was aimed more at Armin, but the brunette, whose hair was covered in snow for some reason, answered instead.

 

            “Yeah, we were both doing some catch-up work in the lab. Then we got to talking about life stuff, this one’s a bit of a chatterbox.” Eren glanced at Armin, whose face was blank other than his exasperated blue eyes.

 

            “Did you drive him here in…” Eren racked his brains for the name of Hanji’s Mini Cooper, “Chi… Chica…” He gave up. “Chicachicaboomboom?”

 

            “Chicacchironi.” Hanji correcting him, smiling.

 

            “Right.”

 

            “Sure did!”

           

            “So, are you joining us for movie night? We’re watching Donnie Darko.”

 

            “Yeah! Armin took the liberty of inviting me.” Eren stepped out of the way and held the door open wider so the two could enter and begin hanging up their outerwear. “Moblit’s still in Atlanta.” She murmured while taking off her coat. “I guess I would have spent the whole night at the lab otherwise because I tend to lose track of time while working when Moblit isn’t around.”

 

            Eren helped Hanji hang her coat. “Isn’t that other guy staying at your apartment?” Hanji looked at him for a moment, unreadable. “Levi.” Eren clarified, busying himself with readjusting Mikasa’s coat on the rack.

 

            “Ahaha, sorry, I didn’t know you knew about that. Yeah, he’s there. But he usually leaves me to my own devices when I’m in the lab. Only occasionally under the threat of death does he make me come back when I’ve been there too long. He’s known me long enough to know it’s impossible to get me to completely break away from my work when I’m on a roll, but bless him, he tries, violently.”

 

            Armin headed towards the living room and the two followed.

 

            “Who’zat?” Asked Sasha, looking at Hanji from her newly found place on the leather couch, pretzels in her mouth.

 

            “I’m Hanji Zoe! I’m Armin and Marco’s lab TA. And you…” Hanji looked at her carefully and adjusted her glasses, “You’re… Sasha, right?”

 

             Eren looked at Hanji, impressed, if not a little concerned. “How the fuck did you know that?”

 

            “I’ve talked a lot about you guys to Hanji.” A sheepish Armin said, sitting down beside Jean.

 

            “There’s that. But I’ve also gone through far too many of all of your Facebook and Instagram pictures to be considered socially acceptable.” Hanji admitted, unabashed.

 

            Sasha wasn’t one to mind that, “It’s nice to meet you, Hanji! I’m Sasha Blouse, but I guess you already know that…? I’ve been a bit MIA this semester, life stuff,” Eren over at her, “Anyway, is this your first time to one of Jean and Marco’s movie nights?”

 

            “It’s my first time, and I’ve actually never seen Donnie Darko, but people have been telling me to watch it for years.”

 

            “In that case,” Jean spoke up pointedly from his spot next to Armin, “Should we grab our food and drinks so we can finally go ahead and get started? I’ve been dying to see this movie and watch Yeager piss himself when it gets spooky.”

 

            “It’s one of my favorite movies, you absolute fucker, also it’s not even scary. Wait, didn’t you get jump scared during The Hangover?”

 

            “I WASN’T EXPECTING THERE TO BE A GODDAMN TIGER IN THE BATHROOM. What if I put a tiger in your bathroom? Wouldn’t that make you jump?”

 

            “There’s a difference between being scared by a real-ass tiger in your bathroom compared to being jump scared by a bathroom tiger in a famous scene from a comedy.”

 

            “It’d only be pretty goddamn comedic to _me_ if I put a tiger in _your_ bathroom. But I’d be cool with doing that in payback for the pink hair, dickhead.”

 

            “Jean, I live with Eren, I have a very strict no tiger rule in place.” Mikasa sighed as she waved Hanji towards the kitchen.

 

 

* * *

 

 

            The next morning arose cold but very sunny. Dew was frozen in droplets on tree branches, glittering with flecks of gold from the golden rays of sunlight that had been further illuminated by the light morning fog that rolled outside. Maria’s campus was still mostly quiet, but it was nearly the time that students unfortunate enough to have 8 am classes would have to start slowly filtering across campus. Eren didn’t have any morning classes, but he did have the morning shift at his part time job as a barista at Grounded. It wasn’t easy to get up for his morning shift, but Mikasa had shuffled him out of Jean and Marco’s just before 11 in an effort to make sure Eren didn’t completely kill himself getting up for his shift, and out of concern that he would even wake up for it at all. Luckily Eren didn’t have to open and could get an extra hour or so of sleep, but he still wasn’t thrilled about having to make his way to Grounded with bleary eyes and fogged breath. 

 

            However, 20 minutes into his shift and with the saving grace of delicious, freshly brewed coffee, Eren had perked up considerably. Eren had been working at Grounded for over half a year and was finally starting to feel confident with his barista skills. Although he hadn’t been an employee at Grounded for all that long, Eren had been a regular at the cozy coffee shop for several years, often curling up on its couches and armchairs near the fireplace that blazed during the winter, busying himself with reports, readings, and more occasionally, his art which he usually preferred to do when he had more privacy. He and his friends regularly met there after, or between classes, sometimes able to snag the couches, but usually having to group together at the longer tables near the brick walls. The coffee shop ranged from quiet to crowded, depending on the season, the hour, the occasional discounts, and if any artists were performing on the small raised platform that functioned as a makeshift stage. Despite the fact that it could sometimes get quite busy and chaotic with all the beverage options, Eren enjoyed working there, the pay wasn’t too bad, the managers were friendly, schedules were voluntary to an extent, and Eren got to work with Annie, Krista, and Sasha. (Also, being allowed to select the café’s music was pretty sweet too.)

 

            Eren had been requested to check that the baristas had sufficient inventory of ingredients for specials prepped and up front until the afternoon, as Grounded frequently came up with limited, creative ways to serve caffeine, or “hipster bullshit” as Jean chose to call it. After returning to the back to fetch a bit more rose water, Eren moved on to weighing the saffron, falling into a quiet rhythm, listening to the lull of murmuring voices, spoons clinking against cups, and the occasional hiss of the brewer.

 

            Eren was so enveloped in attempting to pull out the lavender from a shelf higher up on the wall with his back to the register that he missed the tinkle of bells signaling the front door being opened. His coworker, Mina, had disappeared to the back earlier, muttering something about Sam fiddling with the lighting again, asking Eren to mind the orders and drinks by himself until she got back. This evidently was a mistake, as he had entirely missed her request and didn’t note the sound of the door opening. _Mmkay, we seem fine for now. I didn’t check the honey, but Mina just said it wouldn’t be a problem because they stocked up the counters yesterday afternoon._ He glanced to his left to see if there was anything else along the back counter that he had missed. _Guess I’ll check the front counter and the food just in case._ _Do we have any of that chocolate chip oatmeal banana bread today? That’d make a good breakfast for tomorrow, Mikasa likes it too, maybe I can snag some for Armin if we meet for lunch again today._ He turned to check, partially for professional reasons, mostly for personal, and froze in surprise upon seeing Levi standing before the register looking equally surprised to see him.

 

            “Hi.”

 

            “Hi.”


End file.
